PROGRESSIVE 




Class BF116I 

Book J^L_ 

Copyright N° 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



The PROGRESSIVE 
AGE OF REASON 



BY 

SAMUEL HOTCHKISS 
M 




Accept the truth wherever found 

On Christian or on heathen ground 

Reject all error however long 

It may have been nursed by the popular throng 



PUBLISHED 
By THE AUTHOR 

Downs ville, N. Y. 






©CLA2r»s«) 



PREFACE 

The only apology I can offer for presenting this book, 
is that I feel confident that there was a time in my life 
spanning a period of at least forty years that I would 
have been glad indeed of the opportunity of reading a 
book that afforded a clew in regard to the law of our 
being, relating to the here, and the hereafter, the 
answer to the great question " After death, what ? " Or 
as Job puts it : " If a man die shall he live again ? " 
A book that sheds the light upon the Bible, both the 
Old and the New Testament scripture ; the origin of the 
Christian religion and to what extent we are justified 
in accepting the Protestant or Catholic claim, as does 
this book however imperfectly it may have been set 
forth. 

An author invariably has in view his or her prospec- 
tive readers, and in whatever department of literature 
whether fiction, science, religion, miaterialism, agnos- 
ticism or what you please, he or she labors to make his 
or her work attractive and inviting to the whole of the 
class, whichever it may be. 

I am no exception to this rule, and will name a few 
of my prospective readers. All who are interested in 
this question " Does our consciousness terminate with 
the death of the body, or do we survive this change ? " 
All of this class are cordially invited. 

All who may have some misgivings or some doubts 
in regard to the Scriptural plan of salvation and may 



% PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

consider it a little narrow and that it's foundation, the 
Bible may not be the "infallible word of God" 
throughout, and that the original plan (the Papal) 
and the revised plans (the Protestant) may smack too 
much of Priestcraft with a slightly mercenary tendency. 
All such are cordially invited to read this book. 

All who are dissatisfied with ethical or economic con- 
ditions, and think they might be improved were not the 
question of meum et tuum so much in evidence, and that 
the whole object in life with so many is to see to what 
extent one can corner and monopolize the necessities of 
life, and force his weaker brothers to pay tribute for all 
the commodities of commerce. All such are cordially 
invited to read this book. 

All who have suffered bereavement, the loss of friends 
near and dear, and among the conflicting creeds, beliefs 
and unbeliefs, Agnostic and Materialistic, you are be- 
wildered as to whither? where? when? or if ever in the 
infinite forever of unbounded space shall we meet and 
know each other again? All such are cordially invited 
to read this book. 

Finally, dear reader, since people die at all ages, 
since " from the wondrous tree of life, the buds and 
blossoms fall with ripened fruit, and in the common bed 
of earth the patriarchs and babes sleep side by side." 
Therefore let all who can read, read ; the young of all 
ages, the middle aged of all ages, and the old of all 
ages. 

I would make my invitation as general as the matter 
of which it treats is common to all sentient life, so if 
any feel that they have not been specially invited, you 
are hereby invited to read this message. 



PREFACE 3 

The man behind the pulpit, and the man in the pew, 
are invited to read, for if you are sure of your ground, 
you should make yourselves thoroughly acquainted 
with the ground of your opposers, so that you can meet 
them in their opposition, and lay them as they should 
be laid if they are in error. 

Spiritualists may also read this book, but it was not 
so much intended for them. 

There is something indeed pathetic pervading the 
whole realm of Christendom. Right in the shadow of 
the church steeple, sits the man with his pen, men of 
genius, men of high attainment, intellectually, and in 
this twentieth century indites his book and offers 
it for sale, abnegating every shadow of a hope that 
we have a conscious existence after the death of the 
body! 

Here are a few catch-words from an " Ad " that came 
to my hand just last evening, relating to a book of this 
description — ("A new book: This is a Materialistic 
book. The author does not believe that the soul sur- 
vives the body." He says: Is it right to lie for the 
concealment of a disagreeable truth — to enclose the 
vital truth in a pleasant husk of friction by tricking 
the people with the delusion of agreeable falsehoods? 
No ! Tell the truth ! Let not the truth be brought into 
disrepute by unworthy and debasing associations. A 
very frank book ; serious, scholarly, convincing.) 

This Author thinks he holds the key that unlocks 
the mysteries of nature, and is willing to deliver it over 
to all upon receipt of the price of his book. 

This looks to me like a sad lullaby by which to be 
crooned into an eternal sleep; however scholarly and 



4 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

beautifully it may be set to words, could make but lit- 
tle difference ! 

Why should such a sad, and pensive belief as this 
have gained currency in this enlightened age? It comes 
about by our not being just as enlightened as we think 
we are. It comes about through a misconception of 
the Scripture, and centuries upon centuries of wrong 
teaching. 

Dear friends when you have finished this book, please 
ask yourselves this question: Which is the most enjoy- 
able belief? And which is backed by the best proof the 
Materialist religion, the Christian Orthodox religion, 
or the Spiritualist's religion? 

One of America's great preachers at a time in his 
life wrote for publication a large volume, profusely em- 
bellished with illustrations, certain of them grossly 
nude. 

This book is purely Orthodox from cover to cover, 
regarding the Bible as God's revelation to man in its 
entirety with the Orthodox interpretation throughout. 
I speak of this to show what a contrast and under what 
different conditions, are these two books written, his 
and this one. 

In his introductory remarks, he says : " Great is the 
responsibility of publishing a book, especially in this 
case where the publishers a month before the book is 
published have sold £50,000 copies thereof." What a 
contrast ! If this great author and preacher had sold 
this number of books before they are published, and he 
is satisfied that he is giving the world the sacred truth, 
why this weight of responsibility ? It would seem that 
this condition would relieve me of my load of respon- 



PREFACE 5 

sibility all together: which consists of the grave ques- 
tions of, how am I to raise the funds necessary to pay 
for the publication of this book in advance, and then 
the payment of the debt thereafter. 

But I feel as did St. Paul while he Was engaged at 
persecuting the Christians, and presumably after his 
conversion while he was trying to convert the world to 
Christianity, I have written this book in all good con- 
science, and with the best of intentions ; it contains my 
views and convictions upon religion and I have aimed 
to give nothing that cannot be proved either within 
the realm of the Scripture or within the realm of Spirit- 
ualism. 

And yet I expect to be heavily set down upon by my 
Orthodox friends, and to them I would say : " Remem- 
ber that the objects of your worship are martyrs to 
their faith at some earlier age of the world, and in 
looking over the bloody pages of the past, you will 
discover that Error has ever occupied the throne and 
Truth has ever been upon the scaffold." 

Dear reader, when one becomes invested of an all im- 
portant truth there are two courses that may be pur- 
sued. First, to remain supremely impassive; incom- 
municative ; to preserve a taciturn indifference ; a sullen 
silence, and sit and watch the world go by until the 
revolution comes that sweeps you from the shores of 
time, or, Secondly, to speak forth that the world may 
know. I elect to speak. 

Is religious persecution the offspring of Wisdom, or 
of Ignorance? 

I should say most decidedly the latter, and while I 
must avoid entering at length into this subject here is 



6 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

the gist of the stock argument offered by Ignorance to 
justify the extreme measures that leads to religious 
persecutions. 

The interpretation of the Scripture by the Holy 
Fathers. A savage vindictive God who metes out re- 
wards and punishments according to the conduct of his 
creatures, in a sincursed world, and after the death of 
the body, you go direct to your reward or punishment 
as the case may be, which condition holds throughout 
the countless aeons of eternity. 

Upon this hypothesis the man of God reasons " twere 
better to slay one heretic, or force him to recant than to 
have a legion of his posterity resting eternally in hell." 

And again while this miode of procedure obtains to 
better conditions in the supernal he reasons that it also 
tends to better conditions with mankind here on earth ; 
for with all who refuse to accept the c Faith ' to have 
such removed, so that in the great and glorious noon- 
day of Christainity there would then be but one God 
(Israel's) one Saviour, one Bible, one Church, Creed or 
Faith. 

This was the argument, and this was the policy upon 
which the church strove and worked most strenuously 
for many centuries, but it has woefully failed. And 
there has now it seems a blight to have struck the Or- 
thodox churches and the cause the diagnosis and prog- 
nosis of this blight gives rise to this book "The Pro- 
gressive Age of Reason": 

Let not this weak unknowing hand 

Presume thy bolts to throw. 

To deal damnation round the land 

On each I judge thy foe. (Pope.) 



The Progress of Reason 



PART I 

CHAPTER I 

January 11, 1909. I commence the arduous task of 
compiling a book. Now with the millions of books ex- 
tant, and upon every subject that can engage the 
thought of man; books treating of all the varied 
branches of science ; books treating of the exceedingly 
complex and innumerably ramified subject which by 
common consent is called Theology; in fine there are 
books written in support of every imagination of the 
mind, and in nearly every case there is the man or woman 
with the "blue pencil" to note exceptions, and prepare 
his book in contradiction. 

With this fact staring me in the face, of the vast 
amount of books in y the world, I feel constrained that 
there is still one more book needed : and my work hence- 
forward until this book is completed, will be laid along 
this line, and I shall expect to work under this impres- 
sion until the end is reached. The title of a book is 
invariably the first thing observed and read of the book, 
and the title always suggests an idea in regard to the 
subject matter and trend of thought contained therein. 

Now it is a part of American history that has been 
kept in the foreground from the birth of our Republic, 
that Thomas Paine wrote a book entitled the " Age of 



8 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

Reason." Here is the prefatory page of this much 
talked of volume : 

"To My Fellow Citizens of the United States of 
America : 

I put the following work under your protection. It 
contains my opinions upon Religion. You will do me 
the justice to remember, that I have always strenuously 
supported the Right of every Man to his own opinion, 
however different that opinion might be to mine." He 
who denies to another this right, makes a slave of him- 
self to his present opinion, because he precludes him- 
self the right of changing it. 

The most formidable weapon against errors of every 
kind is Reason. I have never used any other, and I 
trust I never shall." 

" Your affectionate friend and fellow citizen, 

Thomas Paine." 

" Written in Luxembourg, France, January 27, 
1794." 

You will see by comparing dates that the above was 
written one hundred and fifteen years ago. Now is 
there anything herein contained that anyone could wish 
to "blue pencil " or take exceptions to? 

'Tis said, and has many times been proved " That 
history repeats itself." Therefore it seems not unbe- 
coming that there should be another effort made to 
give to the world another " Age of Reason." And as 
we should alkwork to the common end that progression 
is the law, I will interpolate the word " progressive " 
with the hope that the " Progressive Age of Reason " 
may have a somewhat broader sweep, and give the 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 9 

world a better understanding in regard to the law of 
being, than did my predecessor Thomas Paine. But 
while I cannot hope to wield a pen with the power, as 
did this pioneer, yet I feel certain that I have a 
knowledge that was unknown to the world in the day of 
Thomas Paine. 

And though I lack the natural ability of this great 
Patriot and Author for the emancipation of man from 
mental bondage, still I feel it my bounden duty to give 
this book to the world, feeling that did we not work, be- 
cause there are those who may excel us, this would bar 
most people from the field of labor in whatever line 
they might choose to work. 

Now I will endeavor to outline my plan of procedure 
as concisely as will be consistent to a fair understanding 
of what I may wish to say. 

Proposition 1. Do we survive the change called 
Death, and is it possible for those who have crossed 
the " great divide to communicate with those in earth- 
life? This proposition involves a dual interrogation 
and I would ask you is there a question that should 
or could concern us more than does this? This I con- 
sider the greatest question that can engage the mind 
of man ! 

Proposition 2. Is the Bible a revelation from God? 
Or in other words: Is the Bible the infallible word of 
God? This is also a question of grave import a ques- 
tion that has by wars and religious persecutions — the 
fagot and sword — for centuries deluged the world with 
blood. But this is not the thing to be here considered, 
the destruction of life and property, and the suffering 
that has been inflicted is not the question. The ques- 



10 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

tlon is, Is the Bible what its friends claim, "A revela- 
tion from God ? " 

Now these two propositions I shall expect to make 
the foundation upon which to erect this my work, " The 
Progressive Age of Reason." 

The first proposition is the altogether important one, 
and the one upon which the other hinges, but in order 
to bring it properly before the mind the second prop- 
osition must be first considered : 

Therefore, Part First of this work will consist of an 
examination of the Scripture, aiming to lay all prej- 
udice aside and treat it in all fairness as far as my 
finite mind is capable, and I will say at this time that 
it is my aim to give you in this book what I think and 
believe to be the truth, and also to tell you of things 
I do not believe. It is not my desire nor can it give me 
any pleasure to disturb or shake any individual's faith 
of any creed, only as I may be able to placate said in- 
dividual with something that later he will find far more 
enjoyable, or at least what I think will be. So I will 
ask you to not jump at conclusions, nor pass judgment 
until the end is reached, nor to take offense in little 
things but remain with me to the close and use your 
reason and see if you are not benefitted thereby. This 
I am saying to those that believe that the only light 
given to the world is through this Book the Bible. 

A few words to the Clergy. For as this work advances 
you may conclude that I am doing something that in 
the future may be derogatory to the foundation of 
your faith, and work ultimate damage to your respec- 
tive churches. 

To these I would say, stay, for all of our interests 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 11 

that stand for anything that has intrinsic value we hold 
in common. I will now name a few of these common 
interests, that we may see if there is one I name that 
you would abrogate. The right to live; the right to 
think; the right to act if in accordance to the rules 
prescribed by our civil or moral laws ; the right to own 
and possess property that we have acquired honestly; 
the right to worship according to the dictates of our 
conscience providing our conscience does not prompt 
us to interfere with others rights, or not to worship at 
all if we prefer; the right to mingle into society, to 
interchange thought; the right to study or to give it 
another expression the right to investigate in the realm 
of science and if perchance a discovery is made that 
may be useful to mankind, would it not be incumbent 
upon the discoverer to make it known. 

Since what is termed the Reformation, Bibles have 
been dispersed all over the civilized world and translated 
in all of the written languages, so we are emprivileged 
thereby with the right to read and draw our own con- 
clusions in regard to this Book, and whether or not we 
consider it to be the inspired word of God. Would you 
deny mankind this right? We have the common right 
and should maintain a comlmon interest in determining 
in every possible way what is Truth, and of applying 
every test available to distinguish it from its counter- 
feit Error. We certainly hold in common a just abhor- 
rence for ignorance, bigotry and superstition, and all 
the indamnable deeds wrought in their name since man 
began to make history. 

We are certainly equally interested in the question 
of a future existence beyond the grave, and what it will 



12 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

be like, and of the question of rewards and punish- 
ments. I might name many other things upon which 
our views must harmonize. We must agree on things 
that stand for the amelioration of the human race 
which at this later day is called Altruism, which means 
charity, the quality that St. Paul so highly recom- 
mended. We hold a like repugnance or I might say ab- 
horrence for this sad visaged melancholy child 
Materialism, begotten of despair who leads his pros- 
elytes to the grave and there bids them a grewsome and 
eternal farewell. 

We alike denounce intemperance and vice of all kinds 
with its blighting withering influence, we agree on all 
that stands for the welfare of mankind, all that makes 
for peace and prosperity, all that goes to make the 
home a home in every sense of the word, so that it will 
be held in remembrance and its recollections a pleasure. 
And here is another thing I might speak of in this 
connection; the question of sincerity; you certainly 
hold that you are sincere in your preaching and you 
all firmly believe in all the things of which you preach. 
I am ready here and pleased to declare also, that I am 
sincere in what I write, and the matter contained in this 
volume are my convictions, both positively and nega- 
tively, that is in regard to what I firmly believe and 
firmly disbelieve. 

Now is there anything herein enumerated upon which 
you at this age would take exceptions? I trust your 
answer is no. 

Well then I must proceed. At this which I regret to 
say must be the parting of our ways. Because I de- 
clare unto you and unto all the world, to both Jew and 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 13 

Gentile, to the Roman Church and her progeny the 
Protestant Creeds (one hundred and fifty-seven, I am 
informed) both clergy and laymen. I do not believe the 
Bdble to be any revelation from the God that created 
and rules the Universe. The God of the Bible I be- 
lieve to be nothing more than a man-made God existing 
only in the imagination, and all of the innumerable 
creeds and beliefs founded thereon I firmly believe 
to be a common error. This I expect to prove to the 
satisfaction of all who wish to know, and who take suf- 
ficient interest in a desire for the truth, and will follow 
me through the course of my deductions. I have many 
things to tell you. I expect to give you the " good 
news." " The glad tidings of great joy." When 
Thomas Paine wrote his " Age of Reason " one hundred 
and fifteen years ago, he did not know of the glorious 
things that are known of at this time that I am going 
to try to tell you. 

Have I had a call to give you this Book? Read and 
I will try to let you know. I will now give you some 
reasons why I feel constrained to write this portion or 
Part I. The Book called the Bible is error and to try 
to believe it gives to the human race a mental obliquity 
a strabismus to the mental vision that makes everything 
in nature look distorted and dismal. It has a tendency 
to make mlankind misanthropic, and pessimistic. De- 
spite what is claimed to be a fulfillment of the Old 
Testament prophecies and promises as proclaimed by 
the Priesthood and Clergy, despite the story that a God 
was crucified to redeem him from the death penalty, 
pronounced upon him by the Almighty for an act of 
disobedience by the first pair, to which you are all fa- 



14 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

miliar. Yet what is gleaned from the whole story, is 
that there is only a small fraction to be saved, and 
that those not saved are doomed to eternal torment. I 
claim such a belief has a tendency to make mankind 
gloomy, morose and melancholy. Inspires him with 
hatred, because the burden of the whole story is an 
account of a God whose attributes seem to be jealousy 
and hatred. 

If the impossible were to take place I do not know 
of anything on earth that would give me greater sor- 
row than to be made or impressed to believe that the 
Bible is a revelation from the " Infinite God " and I 
were to draw from its contents, or teachings the rules 
for conduct in this life, and my hope for immortality 
in the next. 

Now I am going to make an assertion that may and 
without doubt will call down loud denunciations from 
the pulpit and religious press, but I will bet the 
Preacher and religious Editor, however loud their de- 
nunciations in public that secretly there will be a con- 
cordance of vibration in consequence of our souls being 
tuned in harmony upon this subject. I would not wish 
to say anything inimical of the Church-man or his work 
only as I shall hope to change his trend of thought and 
emancipate him and all the world from the gyves of 
error that bind him and are harmful. 

Here is another thing to which I would invite your 
attention. It is laid down in our common civil statute 
" That it is a fraud to conceal a fraud " and should 
not this be as binding morally in regard to matters of 
Religion when one feels for a certainty that said re- 
ligion embraces error that is damaging to the possessor. 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 15 

I believe in the fullness of time that the Great God 
of the Universe is to take his place in the minds of his 
people, and that the Truth is ultimately to triumph. 
Then I would ask, should I not labor for the consum- 
mation of this great and glorious day. 

Therefore, the Bible I reiterate is I firmly believe a 
fraud of which all other frauds pales into utter insigni- 
ficance. In order to believe the Bible is what it is 
claimed and purported to be, you have got to stultify 
Reason you have got to distort your mind in order to 
make it conform to the unnatural unreasonable teach- 
ings of this code of morals so that you become bewil- 
dered and know not toward which point to travel. It is 
apparent that there is a mistake somewhere; because 
from this Book there have from the different interpre- 
tations thereof sprung up one hundred and fifty creeds 
or more (as I am informed) which means that many 
different ways of reaching Heaven, through the blood 
of Christ. Then there are the Jews who claim the Old 
Testament as theirs exclusively, and they are to have a 
Saviour or a King that is yet to come. The world 
has had already sixteen different Saviours and it seems 
that should be enough. 

Rev. Randolph S. Foster, D. D., L.L.D., President 
of the Drew Theological Seminary— at that time — 
commences one of his great Orthodox Lectures in this 
wise. " The Bible is either the most adventurous and 
astounding fraud that has ever gained currency among 
men, or the most sublime and momentous system of veri- 
ties that has at any time appeared upon earth. If the 
former, it ought not to be impossible to expose the im- 
posture; if the latter, it ought to be possible to com- 



16 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

mand for it the respect of unprejudiced reason and the 
acceptance of rational faith." 

From this dual proposition the Bishop proceeds with 
one of his very learned lectures, to prove the Bible 
" the word of God " and that it is so much above the 
common man's mentality that we are not able to grasp 
its meaning, but for our eternal welfare we must be- 
lieve. 

Now we will stick a pin here, and when I have given 
a few more reasons why I feel impelled to write this 
book I will speak of something I have further to 
say in regard to this excerpt from this Bishop's lec- 
ture. 

That the Bible is no revelation from God, anybody 
with sense enough to know right from wrong can see ; 
unless his mind in regard to the power of discrimina- 
tion has been dwarfed and distorted when in childhood 
by impressing him that the Bible is the word of God, 
and to use reason in regard to anything that may be 
found between the covers or to abnegate or doubt any 
part thereof, is sacrilege, and that there is great dan- 
ger by raising a question to any part whatever, either 
in the Old Testament or the New, that you may be led 
thereby by the great Adversary, the Devil, who is al- 
ways watching for an opportunity and is ever exert- 
ing his subtle influence, and by expressing a doubt of 
any part of God's holy word that he will seize upon 
this opportunity and by thus being led in this way by 
this great Adversary you lose your soul. But to the 
one who has not had his mind thus warped and stulti- 
fied, if he is willing to turn on the searchlight of truth 
and reason, and take the time to examine, can see that 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 17 

the Bible falls on to the former limb of the Bishop's 
proposition. 

Another, which seems to me a cogent reason, is that 
there is such a preponderance of books written on the 
Bible side of this question and so very few upon what 
I consider the right side — so much so, that it seems 
by merest chance that the books or literature came my 
way, whereby I was saved from the fate of passing out 
in ignorance of these precious truths that I have re- 
cently discovered : and I feel so grateful to those cham- 
pions for truth, both men and women, from whom I 
have received this light, that it seems but fitting that 
I should offer this volume that, perchance, it may fall 
in the hands of some poor tempest-tossed hungry soul 
as was I, who could not find satisfaction in the pabu- 
lum offered by the Orthodox Churches; which is only 
faith and belief in things incompatible to human rea- 
son, unless reason has been distorted and dwarfed to 
fit said creed. The spiritual food offered by the Ortho- 
dox Churches partakes altogether too much of the na- 
ture of chaff to be soul-satisfying. 

Another reason which I will offer, is the common 
error of trying to impress the world that the suprem- 
acy of the Christian nations over the other nations of 
the earth, the Dark Continent Africa and the South 
Sea Islands is owing to our being in possession of this 
Bible, and their being without it. , This is a grave 
mistake that the world has got to outgrow. That the 
Caucasian race has been in advance of the other races 
of the world, and that it has been in advance away 
back in the past, before the Bible was compiled or had 
anything more than a fragmentary existence, is a fact 



18 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

in history that can be proved as well as anything that 
has been recorded. That the Caucasian race have 
achieved much, that they have made marvelous discov- 
eries along the avenues of science and all that stands 
for the upbuilding of mankind in this life, that they 
have harnessed the forces of nature and made them sub- 
servient to man's will and to contribute to his comfort 
and happiness, none would wish to gainsay. 

That this work of advancement was in progress long 
before the Bible was heard of, and is still in progress 
entirely independent of it, I shall expect to fully sub- 
stantiate in process of this work, and that civilization 
has reached this high attainment not in consequence 
of this Bible but in spite of this " Holy Keep." 

There are pages in the world's history so repugnant 
to human nature, or, our better nature, and so horrid 
in detail, atrocities so revolting wrought in the name 
of the Bible and the God therein described, that to 
recount or take a retrospective view, even the bit of 
modern American history which details the trial and 
execution of the. Salem " witches " — this is but as a 
drop in the bucket — is enough to make the blush of 
shame and indignation, even while I write, suffuse my 
face to think what Ignorance and Superstition and 
Bigotry have committed in the name of the Bible or 
Israel's God. 

That the Christian world is indebted to the Bible 
and its teachings — except as it may prompt mankind 
in the spirit of aggression to hold and occupy by 
force — for its present attainments, and its being so 
far in advance of the rest of the world, is one of the 
common errors of Christianity. 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 19 

The attitude of the Christian Church toward her 
subjects and the outside world when she was vested 
with the ruling power or held the reins of government 
I will touch upon later. 

Why the Caucasian race, the race to whom we be- 
long, is possessed of more intelligence than the brother 
races is among the mysteries unsolved, and unsolvable. 
There is a vast amount of mystery in our world that 
must ever remain mystery: the origin of life and how 
we were first called into existence are mysteries with 
which it is impossible for us to cope. When we con- 
template illimitable space, and the incomprehensible 
duration of eternity, and the unfathomable mysteries 
of the stellar universe, we can only say that the finite 
cannot comprehend the Infinite. 



CHAPTER II 

But, however great the mystery relative to our be- 
ing, we are here the cause of all this controversy and 
trouble: trouble so profound in its nature that an in- 
carnate God has to be crucified to appease the wrath 
of an angry Father God, and still his wrath is not 
appeased: for in the Scripture we read that, Broad is 
the road that leads to destruction and many there be 
that enter in thereat, and straight is the gate and 
narrow is the way that leads to life everlasting and 
few there be that find it. So it is plain that this 
Orthodox God, if we are to believe his word, has de- 
creed that a large majority of mankind are doomed to 
perdition: and I say, should man be denied the privi- 



20 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

lege of searching for another God that perchance is 
not so arbitrary and difficult to please? 

It has been said " An honest man is the noblest work 
of God." This I am not prepared to contradict, nor 
would I wish to. 

It has also been said that an honest God is the 
noblest work of man. 

Now this looks as though there might be a desire 
lurking somewhere among the children of earth for a 
change of Gods. For that the God of Israel or the 
Bible is not honest and that he is a poor God upon 
which to rest a faith for future happiness I shall expect 
to prove, and the proof I shall expect to find and 
point out, so that there need be no mistake, within the 
contents of the Book itself, the Bible. 

Readers, do you not feel that there is a change to 
take place? There are many things among the human 
activities that point in this direction. Just recently a 
book came to hand entitled " The Coming King," writ- 
ten by a man by the name of White ; he, with prophetic 
vision, announces a change which he declares to be 
close at hand. His change is to be brought about in 
this wise. The Resurrection is soon to take place, and 
the " little flock " mentioned by Christ is to meet their 
Redeemer in the air; Mount Olivet is to be cleft asun- 
der, one-half is to move eastward, while the other half 
moves westward, and the New Jerusalem Christ is go- 
ing to bring from Heaven with him and is going to 
settle this tremendous city between these sections of 
this historic Mount. I have read Mr. White's book, 
and he tells this in great sincerity and claims that this 
is sure to take place, because this is in accordance 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON £1 

with the true interpretation of the Scripture. Just 
think of it. The Scriptural account of this city says 
that the angel with his reed makes it out to be 375 
miles square. Will not this be a wonderful sight to 
those who are permitted to see when Christ nears Pal- 
estine with this vast aggregation of city blocks. Then 
in the account it is also stated (see Rev. xxi. 16), 
" That the length and the breadth and the height of 
it are equal." . . . Just for a moment pause and 
think what a city this is that Christ is to bring from 
Heaven with him when he comes to make up his Jewels. 

I was speaking of mystery a short way back. Here 
is another I will speak of that has appealed to my 
mind many, many times : the diversity of human belief 
and the tenacity with which the majority will cling to 
what they believe. Here this Mr. White commences 
his book at the commencement of the Bible and follows 
it to the close, and declares in his deductions that 
there is no superfluous Scripture, but every word and 
miracle are necessary to bring out this wonderful plan. 
" How man was lost, and how he is to be finally re- 
stored, at the second coming of Christ." That is, 
those who are qualified, while the rest are eternally 
lost. 

Now we have no right to doubt that Mr. White 
firmly believes the doctrines as set forth in his book; 
it does not look rational that an individual would write 
for publication a book involving the labor that has this 
one, unless he firmly believes the things therein set 
forth. 

This school of faith — " The second coming of Christ 
and the general resurrection of the body " — has con- 



%% PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

siderable of a following. Some twenty years ago I 
cante in possession of a volume upon this same faith, 
written by one Charles T. Russel, called " The Millen- 
nial Dawn." He claimed the Bible was not rational 
of belief except in the light of this doctrine: and with 
no light at this time, I tried to force myself to believe, 
and at the time if asked I would have said that I be- 
lieved this doctrine " Second Adventism." 

Both of these authors were in harmony in regard to 
this stupendous change, that it was drawing close at 
hand. My belief in this doctrine was of comparatively 
short duration, because Mr. Russel, and Mr. White 
as well, had done just as had been done before, had 
taken fragments from this Book of Books upon which 
to substantiate this supra strange " doctrine," and 
when I came to search the Scriptures outside of their 
Scriptural references I soon discovered that their creed 
would not hold water any more than the rest. I take 
no stock whatever in the belief of the " second coming 
of Christ " or of this resurrection as it is taught. And 
yet I believe firmly there is a change to take place in 
the religions of the world at no very distant day, be- 
cause the popular creeds embody so much of error and 
the world has made such advancement since the incep- 
tion of these creeds, and the Book upon which they are 
founded, and the truth is forcing its way into the minds 
of the people to such an extent that I believe at no 
distant day that the creeds of to-day are destined to 
tumble and crumble into indistinct decay just for the 
want of a following. 

That there is unrest in the Christian churches, that 
there is something that gives them a worried look, one 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 23 

does not need a very powerful searchlight to see ; there 
has something happened within the last sixty years 
that makes them feel shaky, and they are wondering 
much about what Christ had in mind when he said, " I 
have many things to tell you but ye cannot hear them 
now.'' 

Yes, I firmly believe there is a change coming. 

I premise that the Christian people of the present 
time and, I might add, the majority of the people 
throughout Christendom, suppose the Bible to be the 
word of God in consequence of costly churches, the 
great theological seminaries and the highly learned 
divines sent therefrom to teach the people the ways of 
Godliness : and the glamor by which time has encircled 
this Book, so that they scarcely stop to think how we 
came in possession of it or what it teaches. 

This, my friends, applies just as well to the mosque 
of the Mohammedan, to the temple of Diana of the 
Ephesians, or any temple erected to any of the ancient 
tribal gods who have had their day of triumph and 
decline and are now numbered with the things of the 
past. Therefore, declaring to you that it is not my 
aim or wish to offend the churchman on either side of 
the pulpitj but for what I believe to be for the ad- 
vancement of Truth and for the best interest of man- 
kind, I ask permission to lay aside the halo of God- 
liness, the robe of sanctity and the glamor by which 
time has encircled this Book the Bible and to 
use the greatest gift God has bestowed to man, Reason, 
and make a brief examination of the contents of this 
ancient Book without prejudice, let or hindrance, and 
see if we truly believe this Book to be a revelation from 



24 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

the Infinite, Omnipresent, Omniscient, All-Wise and 
Omnipotent God. 

One of the strangest problems that confronts me 
at this time is the way so many people who seem intel- 
ligent on other subjects and yet are so purblind and 
display so little sense and judgment in regard to this 
tremendous slavish error, namely, that the Bible is a 
revelation from God. One reason for this, no doubt, 
comes about in this wise: It is not uncommon to hear 
from the pulpit, in fact, it is the burden of their 
teachings, that if we had been deprived in any way 
(and that it came so near happening several times 
that it fairly makes one shudder) of this blessed Bible 
and the wonderful things to be learned therefrom, how 
man was lost through our first parents' trans gression* 
how Christ left his throne in heaven at the right hand 
of God the Father, became incarnated, was with man 
thirty-three years, was crucified, dead three days, raised 
from death, ascended to heaven and sits again at the 
right hand of God the Father to make intercession for 
the children of men — that, if we were without this 
knowledge, we would be in total ignorance and without 
one ray of light or hope in regard to God's will to 
mankind. So, you see, the plan is that heaven can only 
be reached through a proper understanding of the 
Bible, and this can only be obtained through the supe- 
rior knowledge and sanctity of God's vicegerents, the 
vicar and the priest. 

I had in mind to ask Bishop Foster a few questions, 
but it is not him alone. I will include all of the bishops 
of all of the Christian creeds, all of the clergy, the 
whole of the priesthood, all who wear the mitre, robe 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 25 

and stole. If there is no other way given under heaven 
whereby man must be saved but by the blood of a cru- 
cified God, and this knowledge is drawn from this Book, 
the Bible, and this Bible, you say, is the infallible word 
of God, I would be pleased to ask you a few questions. 

With the light of modern science, Astronomy and 
Geology, do you believe the Scriptural account of cre- 
ation, and particularly that part which relates to 
Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, that God, after 
creating Adam, in order to get him a consort, puts 
him into a profound sleep, removes one of his ribs, and 
from this rib creates Adam a wife? 

Do you believe that in this Garden of Eden, where 
God places this first pair, that a snake appeared and 
carried on social and intelligent converse with Eve, and 
decoyed her into this act of transgression, which 
brought death into the world, and places mankind in a 
lost condition from which there is no retrieve only by 
" blood atonement "? 

While this snake was doing this incalculable dam- 
age, did he stand erect, poised on the point of his tail 
while talking to Eve; and did he from thenceforward 
have his perpendicularity horizontalized in consequence 
of meddling with things pertaining to God? 

Embodied in these first three chapters of Genesis is 
an account upon which hangs the whole Christian re- 
ligion. Cut out these three chapters and you have 
removed the whole foundation upon which Christianity 
rests. Do you not think Christianity rests upon a 
mighty shaky and exceedingly flimsy foundation? Be- 
cause if mankind was not lost through this first pair 
there was no necessity for this act of Deicide, as re- 



26 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

corded in the New Testament. It is not uncommon at 
this age to hear this Scriptural account of Adam and 
Eve and the snake in the Garden of Eden casually re- 
ferred to by the pulpiteer as a probable myth without 
seeming conscious that if this first account is myth, 
its counterpart, " the story of a crucified God," is a 
falsehood. 

It is with some difficulty that I select a few questions 
at this time, there is such an immense number to choose 
from that were I to interrogate you upon all the un- 
reasonable, unbelievable things that we see in this ven- 
erable old Book we would have a volume that would 
greatly exceed my present plan, so will make but a few 
more promiscuous selections. 

Do you believe this account as recorded in Genesis 
vi. 6: "And it repented the Lord that he had made 
man upon the earth, and it grieved him at his heart "? 

So this great male potentate sits in council, and con- 
cludes to destroy all life upon the earth, by bringing a 
flood of waters upon it. And life's tragedy would have 
ended, and the turmoil ceased, had not Noah have found 
grace in the sight of God, and was thereby let into the 
secret of what God was contemplating and was given 
instructions in the art of ark-building and built this 
ark as per account and Noah and his family and the 
animals of the earth were thereby saved? 

See Judges xv. 16 to 19. Do you believe that Sam- 
son slew one thousand Philistines with the jawbone of 
an ass? Verse 18: "And he was sore athirst, and 
called on the Lord, and said, Thou hast given this great 
deliverance into the hand of thy servant: and now shall 
I die for thirst and fall into the hands of the uncir- 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON Tt 

cumcised.' 9 Verse 19 : " But God clave a hollow place 
that was in the jaw, and there came water thereout, 
and when he had drunk his spirit came again and he 
revived," 

See 2 Sam. vi. Do you believe the story of Uzzah, 
" When he put forth his hand to steady the ark of 
God, when the oxen shook it, that the anger of God 
was kindled against Uzzah and God smote him there 
for his error ; and there he died by the ark of God " ? 

See Gen. xix. 26. Do you believe the pathetic story 
about Lot's wife, who, for no greater offense than look- 
ing back upon the destruction of all that was near and 
dear, but for this offense was changed to a pillar of 
salt? 

See Ex. xxxiii. 20 to 23. Do you believe that 
the infinite God said to Moses at one time : " Thou 
camt not see my face: for there shall no man see me, 
and live. And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place 
by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock, and it shall 
come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will 
put thee in a cleft of the rock, and will cover thee with 
my hand while I pass by: And I will take away mine 
hand, and thou shalt see my back parts; but my face 
shall not be seen "? 

See Ex. xxiv. 9, 10, 11. M Then went up Moses, and 
Aaron, Nadab, and Abihw, and seventy of the elders of 
Israel; and they saw the God of Israel; and there was 
under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire 
stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clear- 
ness. And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he 
laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and 
drink "? 



28 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

See Ex. xxii. 18. Do you believe that the infinite 
God ever said to Moses and that the edict was to re- 
main in full force to the end of time : " Thou shalt 
not suffer a witch to live "? 

See Num. xx. 10, 12. Do you believe " That Moses 
and Aaron in the wilderness of Zim gathered the con- 
gregation together before the rock, and he said unto 
them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water 
out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand, and 
with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water 
came out abundantly, and the congregation drank and 
their beasts also. And this displeased God because the 
rock was not smitten in his (God's) name. So Moses 
lost his chance of going on to'ther side of Jordan. 

See Joshua x. 12, 13. Do you believe that Joshua 
" in the sight of Israel," when in the heat of one of 
their great battles with the Philistines, said, " Sun 
stand thou still upon Gibeon and thou Moon in the 
Valley of Ajalan." "And the sun stood still, and the 
moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves 
upon their enemies "? 

And please tell us if Joshua stopped the sun for a 
whole day what difference it could have made with his 
business about stopping or monkeying with the moon? 
Now it seems this account was taken from the book 
of Jasher. And we would be pleased to know, Was 
the book of Jasher the word of God? 

See Judges i. 19. Do you believe, as here stated, 
"And the Lord was with Judah: and he drove out the 
inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out 
the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots 
of iron "? 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 29 

See 2 Kings ii. 23, 24. Do you believe that Elisha 
after healing the waters of Jericho, " And as he went 
up from thence unto Beth-el: and so he was going up 
by the way, there came forth little children out of the 
city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up thou 
bald head; go up thou bald head" " And he turned 
bach and looked on them, and cursed them in the name 
of the Lord." " And there came forth two she bears out 
of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them "? 

See 1 Kings xxii. Do you believe the account con- 
tained in this chapter, in regard to Ahab, King of 
Israel: how God held a council in heaven, to determine 
wherewith he might persuade Ahab to go up and fall 
at Ramoth-Gilead, " And there came forth a spirit and 
stood before the Lord and said, I will persuade him. 
And the Lord said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, 
I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the 
mouth of all his prophets. And he (the Lord) said, 
Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, 
and do so. Now, therefore, behold the Lord hath put 
a lying spirit in the mouth of all thy prophets." Do 
you believe this account? I can only give a summary 
of this account; the student should read this chapter 
carefully. I will only say the plan worked complete 
and Ahab was slain. 

See 2 Kings xiii. 20, 21. Do you believe this story? 
" And Elisha died and they buried him. And the bands 
of the Moabites invaded the land at the coming of the 
year." 

And it came to pass as they were burying a man, 
that, behold, they spied a band of men; and they cast 
the man into the sepulchre of Elisha: and when he was 



30 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived 
and stood upon his feet. 

See Ex. xxxii. 16. Do you believe God wrote with 
his own hand, as per account : " And the tables were 
the work of God, and the writing was the writing of 
God graven upon the tables "t Ten commandments, 
given as a system of moral principles, upon which 
Israel were to base their conduct. One of these says, 
Thou shalt not steal. Then, see Ex. xi. 1, 2: "And 
the Lord said unto Moses, Yet will I bring one plague 
more upon Pharaoh, and upon Egypt." " Speak now 
in the ears of the people, and let every man borrow of 
his neighbor, and every woman of her neighbor, jewels 
of silver and jewels of gold." " And the Lord gave the 
people favor in the sight of the Egyptians." The plan 
was to borrow all that they could just before their 
exodus through the Red Sea. You should read this 
account carefully and then consider. Do you believe 
it? Do you believe upon these same tables the Infinite 
God wrote, "Thou shalt not kill"? Then turn to 
Deut. 16, 17 : " But of the cities of these people, which 
the Lord thy God doth give thee for an inheritance; 
thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth: But thou 
shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and 
the Amorites; the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the 
Hivites and the Jebusites, as the Lord thy God hath 
commanded thee." Do you steadfastly believe all this? 

Nothing short of utter extermination seems to meet 
this God's requirements. 

In concluding these interrogations, see Rev. xii. 7-9. 
Do you believe this account ? " And there was war In 
heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 31 

dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and 
prevailed not; neither was their place found any more 
in heaven" " And the great dragon was cast out, that 
old serpent called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth 
the whole world.' 9 

I might continue these questions indefinitely, but 
these will answer the purpose intended. * 

I do not expect you to answer these questions; the 
fact is, it places you in an embarrassing situation. The 
contradictory, unreasonable, absurd quotations with 
which this " Book " is replete, places you right between 
the Devil and the deep sea: if you say you don't be- 
lieve, your occupation is jeopardized; if you say you 
believe, then your God is so savage and vindictive, so 
vacillating in his nature, so unreliable of his power, at 
one time he will stay the sun and moon in their course, 
and rain down rocks from heaven to slay or extermi- 
nate the inhabitants of Canaan for his " chosen," then 
at another time he cannot cope with the common foe, 
the Jebusite, or Canaanite, because they have chariots 
of iron: so exacting in small things, so jealous of other 
gods, so supra-sensitive that he is going to be slighted 
or not properly reverenced. There seems to be the 
blight of destruction pervading his whole domain. 
Even the orthodox heaven seems not exempt from the 
blight and curse of war, for 'tis recorded in the Book 
that there was war in heaven, and why may this not 
occur again and again? 

These questions were asked to the religious teachers, 
the priests and clergy, but as my work is not intended 
more for them than the rest of the world, what I may 
say hereafter will be for all who are interested. 



S2 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 



CHAPTER III 

I am satisfied that in regard to religion the world 
has gone wrong. I would not think of censuring any 
class or creed, no individual or any number of individ- 
uals, at this age, for this deep-rooted error that has 
cost the world millions of lives and billions of treasure. 
We have gone astray, and we must retrace our steps. 

Just how it came about that there has been such a 
digression from the paths of Truth is difficult to fully 
explain, but we will do the best we can; there is one 
thing certain, that we are now only emerging from 
the " dark ages " of ignorance and superstition, and 
upon the dial of eternity the hands have moved so 
slightly since man has began to record his history that 
the sweep would hardly be discernible. 

Then, I would ask, is it any wonder that the old 
clouds of superstition and ignorance should still lower 
o'er our mental horizon? And is it to be wondered at 
that from this ooze of ignorance that there should be 
in existence a book similar to this very book we call 
the Bible? The printing press is comparatively of but 
recent date, and that the old traditions, myths, dogmas 
and legends of the ages should appear in print is not 
so much to be wondered at, in fact, it is what might 
have been reasonably expected. But at this age of 
scientific enfoldment and the diffusion of knowledge, to 
see the great majority of our college professors and 
of our teachers and leaders clinging to and pretending 
to make the Book the foundation of their faith, and 
that from its pages may be gleaned the loftiest con- 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 3S 

ceptions of human virtue, in short, to teach that by 
taking the Bible for a guide you can never go wrong, 
is also among the great mysteries to me of the pres- 
ent day. 

The Bible, as it is taught by the theologian, J -firmly 
believe to be the basest of slander upon the Infinite. 
This may look to many like blasphemy, and some may 
have the old-time feelings arise that God should be 
avenged : but, my dear friends, remember the world has 
outgrown many of its superstitions and has many more 
to outgrow. I may be somewhat bolder in my declara- 
tions than I otherwise would be, were it not for the 
fact that it is not long since that I was trying to 
make myself believe the Bible to be the inspired word 
of the Almighty. And that the New Testament was 
the true account of how God had sent or permitted his 
only begotten Son to become incarnated, to live with 
mankind here on earth, to suffer and die to save a sin- 
cursed world from Hell : and I was studying the Scrip- 
ture and pondering its pages, trying to reconcile them 
to reason, which I could not; trying to discover the 
munificence and infinite goodness of the Creator in his 
written word, which I could not. 

I had just about fully made up my mind that man- 
kind was in total ignorance of what the Almighty 
might have in store for him beyond the grave. I had 
strong desires to know, if there was anything to be 
known, and as earnest desire means earnest prayer, I 
therefore prayed for light upon this momentous sub- 
ject, "Do we survive the change called Death? " 

Well, whichever, or however, I am satisfied that I 
have received light upon this subject. 



34 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

What farther I have to say along this line is re- 
served for Part II. of this work. I had come to con- 
clude that materialism was the most rational conclusion 
and I found myself upon the ragged edge of what 
seemed a lost hope. And when the light came, and I 
became convinced that there was a clew to this mystery 
of death, and I found myself outside of this cloud of 
bigotry and superstition, and I could behold the innu- 
merable entanglements by which I had been surrounded, 
the cobwebs of dogma and tradition, the slime-pits of 
error, the rubbish and muck of ignorance brought from 
the misty past, all interwoven into such a web of decep- 
tion, that I thought it but fitting to lay a few planks 
that, perchance, they might be of some assistance in 
effecting the release of such as may desire. 

Because I declare to you, and I speak from experi- 
ence: That I enjoy myself much better than I did 
before I received this new light — Modern Spiritualism. 
You may be led to think from what I have said up 
to this time that I would have the Bible annihilated; 
not so. I do not pretend to say but there is much to 
be learned from this venerable, ancient old Book that 
is of intrinsic value, and that it contains proof unde- 
niable of things of the greatest importance to the 
human race, when rightly understood. I shall aim to 
point out these truths as we come to them, but their 
application properly falls into Part II. of this work. 

Is the Bible a revelation from God? 

What a momentous question to contemplate! What 
has this question cost the world in blood and treasure 
to get it established in what is called the religious 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 35 

world! And how established? Let us make a casual 
survey. The theologian's claim is this : " Since the 
Bible is established as the infallible word of God 
throughout all Christendom, the burden of proof to 
the contrary rests with its opposers." 

Now here let us enumerate a few things that the 
Bible stands for, that we may see how they tally with 
our present-day conceptions of good conduct, morality, 
justice and virtue. 

(1) The Bible stands for human slavery from cover 
to cover. Our martyred president, Abraham Lincoln, 
is said to have said (as well he might), That the most 
vexing problem relating to the Civil War was the slave 
question, and the Bible, which was read alike by both 
the people of the North and South, and by both be- 
lieved to be the inspired word of God, and both pray- 
ing for victory in his name. 

(2) The Bible stands for race hatred and race ex- 
termination. 

(3) The Bible stands for polygamy and incest. 

(4) The Bible stands for the Divine right of Kings. 

(5) The Bible stands for subterfuge and crime of 
the blackest character of every name and nature. 

(6) The Bible stands for lechery and lust and ob- 
scenity which would exclude it from the United States 
mail were it called by any other name than the Bible. 

(7) Now here is another thing the Bible stands for 
and is woven into the whole fabric of the Christian re- 
ligion and preached from every pulpit and impressed 
upon the child's mind in the Sunday-school; that is 
Scapegoat Salvation. Or, to make it plainer, forgive- 
ness of sin and all manner of crime, and that this door 



36 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

of opportunity to enter eternal bliss and dodge the con- 
sequences of wrong-doing stands ajar until the eleventh 
hour of life. 

I have enumerated here sufficient for our present 
needs. Now let me ask you, Is it enjoyable to believe 
in and worship a God of such attributes as those above 
named? Have I misstated or exaggerated in what I 
have said the Bible stands for? I certainly have not, 
and in due time will call your attention to the Scrip- 
ture that will verify all I have said and more. 

But our orthodox friends will say, " But Christ came 
after a lapse of 4000 years and gave us a new dispen- 
sation, and through him Life and Immortality were 
brought to light." Very well, but we can't throw the 
Father God and the Old Testament Scripture over- 
board; you might as well expect the top of a tree to 
flourish and bear fruit with the trunk and roots re- 
moved, as to expect Christ's words to endure and the 
Father's to pass into " innocuous desuetude." 

I wish to call your attention to the conduct of the 
Father God first, but the Son shall receive due atten- 
tion when I arrive at that part of my work. 

Is the Bible a revelation from God? 

Here is a clipping from the secular press which may 
serve as a pointer: 

" Churches dying of consumption. Rev. William H. 
Babcock, Pastor of the First Reformed Church, Bay- 
onne, N. J., one of the largest and wealthiest congre- 
gations in Hudson County, surprised a large congre- 
gation Sunday night by saying he would apply to the 
classes for permission to preach the truth two years 
as an experiment. 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 37 

" The minister said that after studying science, geol- 
ogy and philosophy, he had come to the conclusion that 
the Bible was not a solid chunk of truth. 

" He said the record of the construction of the uni- 
verse as found in the Bible, and according to science 
and geology, conflict. 

" The Roman and Protestant churches, he added, are 
dying of slow consumption, due to the fact, he said, 
that the creeds, forms and systems of the sixteenth cen- 
tury are totally useless for the twentieth century. 

U ' If I had known as much about the ministry twenty 
years ago as I do to-day,' he said, ' I never would have 
put my head in the noose, but now that it is there, I 
will fight for freedom.'" 

Now let us ponder boldly, for I hold 'tis a base aban- 
donment of reason to resign our right and privilege of 
thought. Here is a minister of the Gospel in active 
service making overtures to a body or power to whom 
he seems under obligations, for the privilege of preach- 
ing the truth as an experiment. He acknowledges that 
for twenty years he has been preaching that which he 
has not believed, with a conviction that all of this time 
he should have been preaching the truth. He asks the 
privilege of preaching the truth as an experiment for 
two years. Suppose he is granted the privilege and he 
preaches the truth two years and the experiment fails. 
What then? What is to be understood from making 
a failure in preaching the truth? Is it the question 
of revenue and emolument he has in mind, and if that 
were to shrink he would pronounce the experiment a 
failure? And after making due apology and being 
granted forgiveness for his rash act, does he expect to 



38 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

be reinstated and to again preach that which he owns 
is falsehood? 

Rev. Wm. H. Babcock is only one of a very large 
class, as is apparent from outbreaks like the above, 
which are of common occurrence of late from the press 
and pulpit throughout all Christendom ; they bewail 
the situation of empty pews and lack of interest and 
that a dry rot has struck the church. 

And why? Because the whole thing is false. If the 
Scriptural account of creation is untenable, because it 
will not square with modern science, geology, astron- 
omy, and philosophy, the whole plan of salvation as 
invented by a wily priesthood has eventually got to 
pass, for it has no better foundation of fact, truth or 
reason than has the Biblical account of creation. 

What may have been the motives of the writers who 
have written derogatory of the Scripture, and have 
passed to the beyond, we can only judge from what 
they have written. But it is evident to my mind that 
many of them did not have a knowledge of the things 
that may be known at this time or they would have 
written differently. 

Had I have been certain that the Bible was an im- 
posture, this alone could not have prompted me to 
write a book : but this, coupled with the proof of Mod- 
ern Spiritualism, gives the matter a very different 
aspect and prompts me to write. 

It is apparent to the student who has studied and 
critically investigated from all of the data obtainable, 
both from the Scripture and the realm of psychic liter- 
ature, and the rational conclusion based upon psychic 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 39 

phenomena, that had Thomas Paine have had a knowl- 
edge of things obtainable at the present day he would 
have given to the world a different book than this 
" The Age of Reason " in many of its details. 

One is where he says, on page 6 : "I believe in one 
God and no more, and I hope for happiness beyond this 
life." Now I will stand against this, not entertaining 
the least doubt, as I shall expect to prove, that it 
would receive full sanction from Thomas Paine. That 
I believe in one God — Infinite Intelligence — and no 
more ; but as the finite cannot comprehend the Infinite, 
the God question is one we should not wrestle with, 
only as relates to right living and doing good to our 
fellow-men. And from the tangible evidence that our 
loved ones who have crossed the mystic river Death, 
still live and can and do communicate back to us in 
earth-life. Therefore, I have a full assurance, from 
the evidence, of a life to follow this and that happiness 
will increase with knowledge through the cycles of eter- 
nity. But as this subject is reserved for another part 
of my work, we must wait until we have worked our 
way up to it. Mr. Paine and I may differ essentially 
in regard to some things, but where he says the Bible 
is a book of priestly invention, and the God described 
therein is a man-made god, with all the attributes of 
the barbarous race by whom he was created, there " we 
are two souls with but a single thought." Upon this 
our minds are identical. 

Robert G. Ingersoll could see and point out most 
vividly the flimflams, incongruities, contradictions, in- 
consistencies, absurdities, and gewgaws of priestly in- 
vention to enslave a world, and his life and work in the 



40 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

way of freeing mankind from error must ultimately be 
productive of much good; but in regard to a post- 
mortem existence he expresses the same doubt as that 
of Thomas Paine. He entertains a hope of immortal- 
ity, but makes no pretentions that there is any proof. 

Here is another author who takes a negative posi- 
tion in regard to the Bible being of divine origin. 
A. J. Dadson, author of " Evolution and Its Bearing on 
Religions." I will give you a brief extract from this 
able author that you may see the deplorable situation 
in which his deductions have landed him ; his views are 
purely materialistic, that is, that death ends all. I 
will give the excerpt here and reserve the privilege of 
making a few observations afterward. 

" From every reasonable argument, we may conclude 
that the planets of our own and other systems are in- 
habited, and that life and death have been going on 
indefinitely in the past and will go on indefinitely in 
the future. What then is to become of the infinite num- 
ber of existences when they enter into their immortal 
life? When this world has run its course, it will have 
produced so great a number of human creatures, that 
if they were all to reappear, there would not be stand- 
ing room for them ; and the same may be inferred from 
every other world in the Universe. 

" Is this universal and infinite process of birth and 
death a rational ground for a belief in personal immor- 
tality? Or is it not rather a strong argument against 
it? Hume long ago wrote: 'How to dispose of the 
infinite number of posthumous existences ought also to 
embarrass the religious theory. Every planet in every 
solar system we are at liberty to imagine peopled with 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 41 

intelligent mortal beings; at least, we can fix on no 
other supposition. For these then a new universe must 
every generation be created beyond the bounds of the 
present universe, or one must have been created so 
prodigiously wide as to admit of this continual influx 
of beings. Ought such bold suppositions to be re- 
ceived by any philosophy, and that merely on the pre- 
text of a bare possibility? . . . There arise, indeed, 
in some minds some unaccountable terrors with regard 
to futurity ; but these would quickly vanish were they 
not artificially fostered by precept and education. 
And those who foster them, what is their motive? Only 
to gain a livelihood, and to acquire power and riches 
in this world. Their very zeal and industry are an 
argument against them. 

" Again, what do we mean by a future life ? The 
only thing about us that can be annihilated is con- 
sciousness. Matter and force remain indestructible. It 
matters not to me here whether or not I had a previ- 
ous existence, inasmuch as the continuity — if I had a 
past life — was broken and I am therefore like two dif- 
ferent persons. By a future life, for the same reason, 
we must mean a prolongation or survival of our con- 
sciousness, a carrying with us to the next world of all 
knowledge and remembrances of this, so that we may 
meet and know again those whom we knew in this life. 

" This presupposes an indestructibility of conscious- 
ness by the terms of the argument ; but we know from 
experience that the consciousness is temporarily de- 
structible. Is that temporary destructibility, then, 
only possible, while the brain is a living organ, and 
impossible the moment it ceases to be a living organ? 



42 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

Such an assumption seems almost a reductio ad ah- 
surdurn. 

" Science and experience offering no warrant for a 
belief in a future life, we must fall back again upon 
feeling; and what does this amount to? We desire 
passionately long, many of us, to live beyond this life, 
to meet again those who are gone from us, and whom 
we loved; we shrink from the thought of annihilation, 
eternal nothingness, when this life of disappointments 
and sorrow is ended. We think of our parents, of our 
wives and children, of our friends, and the heart repu- 
diates the justice of any divine ordinance which has 
brought into being so much love and affection only to 
be destroyed in the grave. 

" In every human life a tragedy is enacted, and we 
instinctively yearn for a better and happier home 
hereafter, where the soul's hunger shall be satisfied, and 
all the weary unrest shall be ended ; when brotherly love 
shall take the place of strife, and the heart shall know 
no more sorrow. We look into this vast fabric of na- 
ture with all its solemn grandeur until the mind be- 
comes bewildered and lost in the awful immensity; and 
we ask ourselves in fear and dread if there is never, in 
all the ages to come, to be any explanation of the 
great mystery. Eternity behind us, eternity before us ; 
our lives a mere speck in the everlasting illimitable 
void! The thought appalls us, the intellect is dis- 
tracted and the soul takes refuge in emotional aspira- 
tion. 

" Philosophy interposes, and in the higher regions 
of thought declares that explanation is inconceivable, 
that the condition and processes of thought confine us 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 46 

absolutely to the human circle, by and which the mind 
is impotent to act. Strive as we may to penetrate the 
'hereafter' in search of some satisfaction to the eter- 
nal cravings for a solution of the mystery, those con- 
ditions inexorably draw us back to this finite life; and 
dissolve the fabric of every intellectual aspiration 
which we build with the materials of experience. 

"And what other materials have we for even the 
highest and most abstract flights of the mind? A fu- 
ture life is unthinkable, God is inconceivable, and yet, 
as George Eliot said, 6 duty remains as the most imper- 
ative of all calls upon us in our social relations.' 

"It is a profound mystery about which science and 
philosophy must be silent and the emotional cravings 
confined to each individual." 



CHAPTER IV 

I have copied at considerable length from Mr. Dad- 
son, for the reason that the thoughts embodied in the 
above extract I have revolved in my mind and rumi- 
nated upon them in their every detail much in my past 
hours of reflection. They are, I own, beyond the limit 
of the finite mind of man to cope, but will again re- 
mind Mr. Dadson, and all whom it may concern, that 
the finite cannot comprehend the Infinite in even the 
minutest of its details. 

Mr. Dadson would postulate against the probabil- 
ities of a future life, or, what sounds better, a continu- 
ity of this life beyond this plane ; " that if the planets 
of all the solar systems are inhabited by human beings 



44 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

like our own, that the universe must In time become 
overcrowded." Now, Mr. Dadson, for your sake and 
for the sake of those who may be alarmed from your 
deductions, we will make a survey of the universe which 
must of necessity be finite and see if there is rational 
ground for alarm. Suppose there were a sun so dis- 
tant that it would require 100,000 years for its light to 
reach our earth, — light traveling at the rate of, say, 
11,000,000 miles per minute — what a spacious universe 
this would give us ! Still this universe would be finite, 
because it would have a boundary. Multiply the diam- 
eter of this vast universe by 1,000,000 and then con- 
sider that were you to stand upon the borderland of 
this incomprehensible space you are still in the center 
of the unbounded, illimitable universe of the Infinite 
God. 

So, my dear friends, when you become alarmed for 
lack of space, reach out — there will be no obstruction. 
This is to illustrate how utterly inadequate is the finite 
mind of man to comprehend the operations of the In- 
finite God. 

The boundary of space is ineffable, incomprehensible ; 
and whether or not the stellar universe is coextensive 
with boundless space, we cannot know now, nor do I 
see how it is possible for us to ever know, either on 
this side or the other of the Great Divide. Nor can 
it make much difference with us in regard to our pres- 
ent needs. I have no solicitude ; if it is in accordance 
to the will of the Infinite that we are to have a con- 
tinued existence, that there will be ample room for all 
we need have no alarm. 

I do not* wish to take up the time searching for the 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 45 

boundary line of space, or where eternity began or 
where it is going to terminate. What I have essayed 
to treat of is within our mental scope. " Is the Bible 
a revelation from the Infinite, and do we survive the 
change called Death? " 

I will now invite your attention to the portion of 
Mr. Dadson's quotation where he asks the question, 
"Again, what do we mean by a future life?" He 
says " it matters not to me here whether or not I had 
a previous existence inasmuch as the continuity (if I 
had a past life) was broken and I am therefore like two 
different persons." 

Now, upon this proposition hinges the whole thing; 
this is a subject that I have discussed and pondered 
upon much. You are correct, Mr. D., if the chain of 
memory is severed, if our consciousness does not bridge 
the chasm of death, so that we may know the ones that 
lived and loved us here another life is nought. A be- 
lief or an assumption like this is no better than stark 
materialism. 

I do not see why I should make an option between 
an eternal existence in the realm of Paradise, with all 
the resplendent grandeur by which it has been depicted 
by the preacher, or sink into an eternal dreamless 
sleep, if the chain of memory is severed ; because I am 
to all intents and purposes annihilated, and a newly 
created entity appears upon another plane, which, from 
the very nature of the case, can be nothing to me what- 
ever. Now let us consider for a moment how such an 
unreasonable doctrine as this should find lodgment in 
the human mind. 

Of course, Mr. D. speaks of this only to show its 



46 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

inconsistencies; he belongs to the ultra-materialistic 
school and does not throughout his whole work appear 
to entertain even a hope of a post-vwrtem existence. 

But that there are those who believe just such 
strange and unreasonable doctrines as this I can have 
no doubt, for I have conversed with such and discussed 
the matter with them many times. 

Now we will place a mark right here, because I wish 
to return again to this subject, after calling your at- 
tention to a point or two more from Mr. D.'s quota- 
tion. He says, " Science and experience offering no 
warrant for a belief in a future life, we must fall back 
again upon feeling; and what does this amount to?" 
Then the quotation and chapter closes with his lamen- 
tation over the sad situation of creation as surveyed 
from his viewpoint, which, to say the least, is sad in- 
deed. 

Now the thought suggests itself, what object did 
Mr. D. have in view when he gave this book, " Evolu- 
tion and Its Bearing on Religions," to the world? I 
hold no prejudice, I respect the individual who has the 
courage to speak his convictions ; and I entertain no 
doubt but Mr. D. has written just as he believes. And 
now I would ask, would he be happy in the thought 
that through his book he is converting the world to 
materialism? The question of evolution is a matter not 
germane to the present situation. We have been here 
upon the earth, according to history and all the schools 
of faith and belief, a long time, and just how we were 
evolved does not matter so much since we know that 
we are here. The question germane to the situation is, 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 47 

After Death, what? Or, as Job puts it, If a man die, 
shall he live again? 

Now the fight is still on in regard to this question, 
for aught I can discover, and we are here right in the 
heat of the battle just as much as ever. 

Now I will postulate that when an individual orig- 
inates a book upon any religious faith or cult, or even 
politics, he has a desire for adherents to the doctrines 
set forth in his work ; it is correct that he should. But 
I do not hold that it can be conducive of any good 
to try to overthrow any religion, cult or creed what- 
ever; however inconsistent to reason and truth it may 
appear, unless you can by a course of reasoning point 
out the errors and inconsistencies, to the adherents of 
said creed or cult, and then bestow to them something 
which you consider better suited to their needs, and 
that will ultimately make them happier and make the 
world the better for it. 

Now, I hope I shall not be misunderstood. But if 
the plan of the Infinite had been unfolded to me and 
every secret of nature were revealed, and the destiny 
of mankind, his whence and whither were made as plain 
as an open book, and it were shown to me so clearly 
that there were no possibility or % chance for reading 
wrong, That death ends all, and all that stands for re- 
ligion of every character were but a cobweb of delu- 
sion, I believe that I would carry this secret with me 
to the grave, and let the world roll on in ignorance of 
this melancholy truth. Now, my friends, I cannot 
vouch for this in very fact, for reasons that are obvi- 
ous ; but I think I speak the truth, because there was 
a time, a dark hour in my life, when hope and belief in 



48 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

immortality had fled ; and I took no pleasure in speak- 
ing of it, nor did I even to my nearest friends, not 
even to my wife. 

Then I would ask if, on the other hand, a revelation 
or discovery has been made which gives a greater joy 
than that obtained from the old myths and dogmas of 
the misty past, would it not be incumbent upon me to 
gladly give the news to you? Now, here I will premise 
an illustration, for the sake of defining my position, 
so you may understand. 

If you were going to till a piece of ground for the 
purpose of producing a crop, the first thing to consider 
would be the preparation of the soil. And thus with 
me, before I sow the seeds of this eternal Truth, a task 
confronts me of gigantic proportions. — I have the 
errors and prejudices of the ages to contend with, the 
muck and mildew of the centuries flown, whose very 
breath is blight and ruin. But I believe in God's good 
time that the truth is ultimately to triumph. I believe 
firmly that 

" Truth crushed to earth will rise again ; 
The eternal years of God are hers ; 
While Falsehood, wounded, writhes with pain 
And dies among her worshippers." — Bryant. 

I believe the time is to come 

"When Error is to decay and Truth grow strong, 
When Right shall rule supreme and vanquish wrong." 

So, my friends, I will prosecute my work along this 
line, hoping to free your minds from error, and that in 
time you may be led into the paths of Truth. 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 49 

I shall aim in making my citations from the Scrip- 
ture to point out clearly their inconsistencies in regard 
to their being plenarily inspired of God, for I am fully 
satisfied that the Bible holds the Creator in a bad light, 
and that it is slander, and that it is to pass from the 
earth as a revelation from God, and take its place 
where it belongs ; and, as I have before said, where its 
true worth may appear, as I shall hope to show you 
later on. 

Again, I do not wish to be misunderstood, and to 
disabuse your minds from a misconception that I would 
have the Bible annihilated and the churches closed, and 
everything that appertains thereto abolished. That is 
a mistake. I am no such iconoclast as that. I want 
what the Rev. Mr. Babcock sued for: I want the truth 
preached, for as I behold it from my viewpoint, if the 
teachings as set forth from the pulpit and catechisms 
for the ages past is not wrong, there is nothing wrong. 

Now, I will give a quotation from the Scripture as 
it is recorded in the sixteenth chapter of St. Mark. 
The concluding words of the chapter and of the Gos- 
pel according to him : 

"Afterward he (Christ) appeared unto the eleven 
as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their 
unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed 
not them which had seen him after he was risen. And 
he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach 
the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and 
is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not 
shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them 
that believe : In my name shall they cast out devils ; 
they shall speak with new tongues ; they shall take up 



50 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

serpents ; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall 
not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and 
they shall recover. So then after the Lord had spoken 
unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on 
the right hand of God. And they went forth and 
preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and 
confirming the word with signs following — Amen." 

Now we will take a retrospective view reaching back 
o'er the past, according to Biblical chronology, 4038 
years: where Eve held converse with that subtile snake 
in the Garden of Eden. Here I shall make no criti- 
cisms; let us assume that this happened just as re- 
corded. 

I will quote a few verses, beginning with the third 
chapter of Genesis : 

" Now the serpent was more subtile than any beast 
of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said 
unto the woman, yea, hath God said ye shall not eat of 
every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the 
serpent. We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the 
garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the 
midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat 
of it, neither shall ye touch it lest ye die. And the 
serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die. 
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then 
your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, 
knowing good and evil." 

" And when the woman saw that the tree was good 
for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a 
tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit 
thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband 
with her; and he did eat." 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 51 

I have quoted to verse seven, this history is so 
familiar that I need not quote further. The plan of 
salvation boiled down, amounts to this: From the dis- 
obedience of this first pair, wrought through the in- 
strumentality of this " fallen angel " in the guise of a 
snake brought the curse of God upon them, and their 
posterity and after a period of about 4,000 years a 
Redeemer comes, and here are the conditions whereby 
man may be saved. 

Now in a matter of so great concern and co-extensive 
with the human race: we will eliminate all superfluous 
words, but save all the essentials of the plan. " Man 
fell from grace, through our first parents' disobedience, 
the curse of God resting upon them and their posterity ; 
thus doomed to endless hell till a Redeemer comes, then 
the conditions, Believe and be baptized and he that be- 
lieveth not shall be dammed. And here are the signs to 
follow such as believe; they are immune from harm if 
they take up serpents, or, if they drink any deadly poi- 
son it shall not hurt them, they shall speak with new 
tongues, etc. The Master makes use of this expression : 
" All who have ears to hear, let him hear." This I will 
say. But I must own that the English language is too 
sterile of expression to convey to the mind of the be- 
liever the awfulness of the situation were he to let reason 
take the place of bigotry and blind devotion. 

Now it must appeal to the mind of the reader, that 
this is a critical situation, and the chances for reaching 
heaven are not as good as we might desire, and might 
have been impressed by the good parson ; but my friends 
these are the words of Jesus Christ, the son of the 
living God, if we believe the Bible plenarily inspired. 






52 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

The love of God is an expression very common with 
the believer and religious teacher: 

" God is Love" is another common expression. Does 
the Scripture prove this ? " For God so loved the world 
that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever be- 
lieveth on him should not perish, but have everlasting 
life," has been put in decorative form and hung upon 
the wall in the believer's chamber to give comfort and 
consolation in his hour of trial and adversity. But 
Christ is not said to have said this. But to get back 
to our subject: The "signs that are to follow such as 
believe." 

Now I would ask you could the Orthodox Devil, with 
horn and hoof concoct a scheme whereby he could reap 
a greater harvest for his Orthodox hell than this ? That 
we are to be saved by belief and baptism. Baptism 
might not be so bad, unless it were to take place through 
the ice with the thermometer at zero as I have known 
of its being done, yet to avoid eternal hell this task 
might still look slight. But to believe to that extent 
that you may drink the apothecary's deadliest drug 
and yet remain unharmed, reduces the plan of salvation 
to a reductio ad absurdum. So here we have it ; God 
has prepared a lovely place somewhere so beautiful and 
grand that it transcends the finite mind of man to 
grasp, which seems to give " his only Begotten Son " 
pleasure in referring to with expression like this : u In 
my Father's house are many mansions" My Father's 
Kingdom, and other similar illusions to this realm of 
bliss, and for what purpose? I would ask. Now if this 
Son is coeternal with the Father as Theology teaches, 
the Son understood the whole creative scheme and plan 
of salvation from the first. So what other solution can 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 53 

we arrive at other than this? That it is this Triune 
Orthodox God's pleasure to sweep with the besom of de- 
struction the billions of souls that have been produced 
through his creative fiat into the abyss of an eternal 
Hell. " Everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his 
angels." (Matt. xv. 41.) " And these shall go into 
everlasting punishment." (Matt. xv. 46.) 

Now how could arrangements have been made to 
place us in a more deplorable condition. Not a ghost 
of a show for getting to heaven. 

Oh ! you may say I don't believe that, for Christ and 
the Apostles tell it different in many other places in the 
Book. What can that amount to, what the apostles — 
Paul included — may have said? Christ said these words 
according to your inerrant Bible, and this after His res- 
urrection, just before he ascended to heaven, and re- 
sumed his place at the right hand of God. These were 
his last words to be given to this sin-cursed world, and 
he must have meant what he said; and while we have 
much to substantiate, but nothing to mitigate or con- 
tradict one syllable of this decree. 

See (Matt. vii. 13.) "Enter ye in at the straight 
gate: for wide is the gate and broad is the way that 
leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in 
thereat." "Because straight is the gate and narrow 
the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that 
find it." 

Also (Luke xiii. 23.24. \ "Then said one unto him, 
Lord are there few that be saved." " And he said unto 
them: " Strive to enter in at the straight gate; for 
many I say unto you will seek to enter in and shall not 
be able." 

And again if we conclude this road of reaching 



54 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

heaven through the atoning " blood of Christ " too diffi- 
cult, and our minds should revert back again to the 
law, and we were to conclude that, reaching heaven by 
the legal course were after all the surest way; then 
here again we are barred, for Christ says, see (John x. 
7-8) " Then Jesus said unto them again, verily, verily, 
I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep." 

All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers. 
Also (Acts. iv. 12.) "Neither is there salvation in any 
other: for there is none other name under heaven given 
among men, whereby we must be saved" 

Now I would ask what are we to do? When as the 
quotations under review shows us that Christ was un- 
der obligations to upbraid his disciples for not believ- 
ing, who had walked with him during his whole ministry, 
had beheld him work his miracles even to the raising of 
Lazarus who had been so long dead, had even foretold 
his crucifixion and resurrection, and all that. Even 
Thomas after seeing all this and being assured by ten 
disciples, declared he would not believe until he had 
thrust his hand into the print of the nails in his hands 
and feet, and in the spear thrust in his side. 

Then where are we at? I would ask, who have to 
take the whole thing by hearsay bridged by twenty 
centuries translated and re-translated, revised and re- 
revised, held in dispute by friends declared to be a 
priestly fraud by foes, and we are to believe or be 
damned, and then the signs to follow. But our souls 
rebel. Our immost nature repudiates the thought — if 
we but use our reason — that stuff like this can be any 
part or parcel of a revelation of any God, but a God of 
human invention to enslave mankind; to dwarf his in- 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 55 

tellect, and give a festering Priesthood absolute power 
over the affairs of church and state. 

The Bible, as proclaimed from the pulpit exerts an 
influence in two directions, and both are erroneous and 
bad. 

First — By believing with a simple childlike faith you 
must inevitably become a fanatic, or what seems a bet- 
ter expression a bigot, because you preclude the right 
to reason intelligently upon all subjects relating to the 
Infinite. 

Second — By rejecting the Bible as preached, and 
failing to discover its real value, (which I shall hope to 
show you bye and bye,) you on the other hand become 
a " Materialist " or an adherent to the school of Sad- 
ducees who disavow everything pertaining to continuity 
of life. 

CHAPTER V 

Now we will return to the subject where we placed 
the mark a few pages back ; as I had a few more words 
to say along that line. If we survive the change called 
death, does our consciousness survive the change also? 
I think I amplified somewhat before upon the impor- 
tance of this question. 

Now from the foregoing scriptural excerpts, and 
many more that might be brought to bear : the maze of 
perplexities and bewilderments which confronts the 
Christian is apparent. 

Christ tells us to strive to enter in at the straight 
gate, but many shall strive and fail; this leaves the 
believer's mind in doubt in regard to the fate of his 



56 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

friends who may have striven; again the believer has 
many, who are near and dear, bound by the ties of 
affinity and consanguinity, by business relations and 
all that, who manifest no interest whatever in regard to 
things beyond this life. Again there are others who are 
in open rebellion to this exceedingly narrow plan of 
salvation. So the Christian reasons that since so small 
a fraction are to be saved, and such an overwhelming 
majority are to go where the worm dieth not, and the 
fire is not quenched, that 'twere better to have the chain 
of remembrance severed; to have all knowledge of this 
life and its every relation obliterated. The reason for 
such belief is very apparent; while the mother might 
reach heaven she might not find her husband or her 
children there, and that would mar her joy. We will 
reserve what more might be said along this line for the 
imagination of the reader. 

A faith like this is tantamount, as I have said before 
to bald materialism. I do not say or wish to be under- 
stood that all Christians believe this ; and to those who 
believe that we shall meet and know each other there, 
we will take a look at the other horn of the dilemma. 

How will it be with him who has fought the fight, has 
endured unto the end ; has won the prize and gained the 
goal of heaven, and when upon arrival, while wander- 
ing up and down upon the gold-paved streets of Para- 
dise with its transcendent grandeur, perchance he meet 
an old time friend, a brother of the faith, who by belief 
and baptism made his election sure, and had preceded 
the other by a term of years; when after greeting he 
makes earnest inquiry of such and such of relative or 
friend of father, mother, wife, or child ; he still runs o'er 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 57 

the list of friends that he had hoped to meet in blank 
despair, as the friend makes negative responses to his 
inquiries; until at length silent with grief he sits him 
down and pensively recalls the language of the Book, 
which now for the first time he seems to fully compre- 
hend. He ponders now upon the text which says: 
" Many are called, but few are chosen" But where are 
they the others? There is but one other place accord- 
ing to your Book, and — that — is — Hell, and hell to all 
eternity. 

I own these pictures are plain and unadorned, that 
they contain no beauty of expression. I have no gift 
in that direction, nor is it necessary to this my work. 
But I would ask you could heaven be heaven in any 
sense, were we but to meet only the merest fraction of 
those we knew and loved, however beautiful the place 
might be with a full consciousness that those we do not 
meet are lost. 

You may say : " They should have studied the Book 
and found the straight and narrow way." If I have 
not answered you here, there is no need to try. 

Think of the billions who have passed out pre- 
cipitately by earthquake, fire, flood and sword : and the 
billions who have passed who have had no knowledge of 
your Book : Where are they ? You need not answer. It 
is not inherent to our nature to be continually wrapped 
an gloom, but if we were to believe the Bible as taught 
by the servants of this Orthodox God, I do not see 
how we could ever light our faces with a smile. 

That there have been many driven to insanity trying 
to reconcile these biblical absurdities to reason, none 
can gainsay. 



58 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

You still insist that I have not been fair in my 
scriptural deductions. That they are but the whisper- 
ings of Satan, and that I am led by the " Evil One," 
that there is much within the Book to prove that what 
I have said is not true. Yes my friends, but what does 
that amount to, to disprove or to try to disannul one 
portion of the Bible with some other portion. When 
you go into this you will soon discover that your Bible 
will have so dwindled that there will not be enough left 
worth disputing or fighting over. 

If the Bible is plenarily inspired of God and God all- 
wise, omniscient and omnipresent, and a misunderstand- 
ing of its contents were fraught with such terrible con- 
sequences: how could this Book his revelation contain 
one thing that could look like contradiction, or that 
anything but perfect harmony could pervade the whole 
volume, both the Old and New Testaments. 

If this Book was God-given, it follows that it should 
be also God-preserved, and it is evident to the inves- 
tigator or student that the Creator has had as much 
to do with guarding and preserving this Book, as he 
has in creating it, and no more, as I shall hope in time 
to show. 

But just now I wish to call your attention to a few 
popular errors. It is an error deep-rooted in the pub- 
lic mind, that all that makes for the advancement of 
civilization, our schools and colleges (except Theologi- 
cal) all that stands for improvement, our ocean steam- 
ships, railroads, manufactories, and I might add all of 
the inventions for the destruction of human life, and 
everything that stands for progress is all owing to the 
Christian religion. This is a mistake. 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 59 

The Roman said, before her decadence. "While 
stands the Coliseum Rome shall stand. When falls 
the Coliseum Rome shall fall, and when Rome falls, 
the world." And the Christian savant would make 
you believe, " While stands the Bible, Christian- 
ity will stand. When falls the Bible, Christianity must 
fall, and when Christianity falls civilization, and all 
that stands for improvement must tumble into indis- 
criminate chaos." 

Now let us take a look back o'er the past, and see 
if this be true. 

There was a time in the dark past when the Christian 
Church dominated all the affairs of state and taught 
her subjects to believe, that she ruled by " Divine 
Right," and that her mandates and decrees were handed 
down direct from God, and to breathe a thought derog- 
atory to her laws were heresy and the poor apostate 
had justly incurred the wrath of God and God must 
be avenged: so the traitor was burned at the stake in 
public that the populace might see the awfulness of dis- 
obeying God. 

Now here is the point: If the Bible is the word of 
God there can be no rational argument brought to bear, 
no reason can be given why it should not have held its 
place, and why if lost it should not be again restored, 
like the stone the builders rejected it should be restored 
and become the chief corner stone of every government 
throughout all Christendom. And if this Orthodox God 
is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever, with neither 
change nor shadow of turning there can be no rational 
argument brought, or reason given, why the law God 
gave to Moses by which to govern his chosen people 



60 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

should not be authority in all departments of jurispru- 
dence at the present day. 

Now I will just give a sample or two of this God- 
given law that we may study for a brief space the mys- 
teries of Godliness. It is with difficulty that I choose 
these selections, because of the obscenity pervading the 
whole legislative bestowment, you should read this law 
for yourselves because it is not fit to put in modern 
print. See (Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuter- 
onomy.) 

Here are the samples I choose: Deut. xiv. 21, " Ye 
shall not eat of anything that dieth of itself: thou shall 
give it unto the stranger that is in thy gates, that he 
may eat it; or thou mayest sell it unto an alien; for 
thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God." How 
does this tally with our modern pure food law? 

Again see Deut. xxi. 18, 21 : " If a man have a stub- 
born and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of 
his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when 
they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them: 
Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, 
and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and 
unto the gate of his place; And they shall say unto 
the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and re- 
bellious, he wUl not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and 
a drunkard. And all the men of his city shall stone him 
with stones, that he die: so shall thou put evil away 
from among you; and all Israel shall hear and fear." 

These you will see are but fair samples, if you will 
take the time to examine or read the whole law for your- 
selves. It is certainly enough to put a smile on the face 
of the ungodly to think of the church-man pretending 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 61 

that in this law is contained the will of the Creator to 
mankind. 

The Coliseum for centuries has been a mouldering 
mass. Its ruins now mark the spot which was once the 
Roman's greatest pride : but she outgrew as civilization 
advanced the inhuman pleasure that the arena gave; 
but the earth remains and makes her revolutions now as 
then. But how with the Book? There is not now a 
civilized nation in the world, where the civil authorities 
are dominated by the church : And why ? Because the 
world has out-grown church government ; she has had a 
dark experience; a history written in blood; but that 
dark day has past and never can return; but though 
the clouds of superstition lower, the world progresses ; 
progression is the law ; the Truth is going to force its 
way through the ramparts of Ignorance and Supersti- 
tion, and take her place upon the throne of reason ; and 
the Christian religion as preached and taught to-day, 
is to pass. Because the foundation upon which it rests 
is false ; its teachings are unreasonable and exert a bad 
influence upon the mind of the believer ; gives him a false 
conception of the overruling power, and makes all 
nature look distorted. 

The doctrine of the "remission of sins, or, that 
Christ's blood cleanseth from all sin, and all the con- 
comitant passages of scripture which teach forgiveness 
or expiation from sin and crime through another, is an- 
other popular error, and fraught many, many times 
with terrible consequences. It has a tendency to en- 
courage crime and fraud and dishonesty in all the ave- 
nues of business. 

The poor deluded wayfarer beholding corruption and 



62 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

graft in all the affairs of business both public and pri- 
vate, the exorbitant salaries paid to our public servants, 
the prestige given to predatory wealth, the impropor- 
tionate emolument paid to the learned priest and 
preacher, the meager reward for the common toiler. 
Environed by this situation of inequality, and taking 
cognizance of those who seem to be enjoying in full 
measure the pleasures of this world by their taking 
advantage of some kink or loop-hole in the civil law, 
becoming rich thereby, respectability restored by liberal 
bestowment to the church, sins all forgiven through his 
Redeemer, and at life's close a splendid funeral and a 
grand mausoleum. 

Illustrations like the latter are of so common occur- 
rence that they meet with only passing comment. This 
but briefly and imperfectly sets forth the result of false 
teaching drawn from this Book, and the enervating 
effect " vicarious atonement " exerts upon the morals 
of mankind. 

The entomologist tells us that the larvae of the 
honey-bee are all one and the same thing when first 
hatched from the egg, and that the difference in in- 
dividuality in the colony is brought about through the 
difference in nutrition ; feeding the young bees with the 
requisite food to produce adults capable to the work 
required of them. So in this way there are bees in the 
same hive which have stings, and those which have not ; 
whether this is true or no, I cannot say. I have not 
studied this science and can only hold it tentatively. 
But that there are certain things, that bear a striking 
analogy to this within the human race, we must admit. 
But this analogy does not obtain through physical — but 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 63 

mental pabulum. That the innate nature of a child is 
inherited through its mother's milk does not seem to 
hold; because there seems to be no difference in the 
nature of the child whether nurtured from its mother's 
breast, or from the bottle. But upon the question of 
mental food this analogy obtains to the extent that has 
warranted the priest in saying: "Give me the training 
of the child for the first seven years, and you may have 
him ever afterward to make of what you may." This 
the priest has learned from long experience, and as a 
rule is no doubt true, but it has its exceptions now and 
then. The pastors of the Protestant Churches under- 
stand this well, and so they have their graded Bible 
lessons, adapted to the child just learned to lisp his 
earliest words, and thenceforth onward to his ripened 
years. It is a physiological or psychological fact that 
if a child is taken at the age of four or five, and certain 
impressions are made upon his mind continually, or 
even once a week, with suggestions, that said impres- 
sions must not be dismissed, and you will have the char- 
acter of that child so formed, those impressions so 
stamped upon the cortex of the brain, that it will be 
in most cases impossible to eradicate; let the impres- 
sions be false or true. So you see from this that error 
dies hard. That the Truth has a formidable foe to deal 
with : but remember friends, " No question is ever settled 
until it is settled right." 

Vicarious atonement is tantamount to " Scape Goat " 
forgiveness, it is an error. It is not founded upon any 
principle of justice, or reason: it is detrimental to 
human progress, it was revamped from a myth, and is 
doomed to be relegated to the waste-basket of oblivion. 



64 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

Now I feel constrained to give you the prototype 
of " vicarious atonement " so that you may see how it 
originated and how much reason or justice it contains. 
See Lev. xvi. 20.22, " And when he hath made an end 
of reconciling the holy place, and the tabernacle of 
the congregation and the altar, he shall bring the live 
* Goat. 9 And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the 
head of the Vive goat, and confess over him all the in- 
iquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgres- 
sions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of 
the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit 
man into the wilderness: 

"And the goat shall bear upon him all their inquities 
unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat 
in the wilderness," 

Is there any occasion for comment upon such incon- 
gruous stuff as this? Here is where the doctrine of 
atonement as taught to-day had its origin. And when 
you take time to consider, you will see that the latter 
is as untenable as its prototype. 

It has been since the dawn of Christianity one of the 
most effective weajpons in the Christian's hand. " That 
whoever teaches anything in opposition to the Bible or 
the Christian's creed, that he was possessed of the devil 
and that such a person, he or she, was bad clear 
through ; that they were bereft of all the attributes that 
stand for humanity or decency ; that they are pessimis- 
tic, misanthropic, haters of everything that stands for 
good, and that they were studying evil continually, that 
they were trying to upbuild the Devil's Kingdom, by 
decoying certain Christians who were not properly 
armed with the sword of righteousness, into the bottom- 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 65 

less abyss of hell. And that any religion, creed or belief, 
whatever, that did not accept the Bible in its entirety 
as God's holy word, and if this Book were not the foun- 
dation of their faith and creed, the whole thing was of 
the Devil, and must return to hell from whence it 
sprung. 

Now let. us see if we can discover what has given rise 
to these misconceptions, and misunderstandings in re- 
gard to this Book called "God's word," and also why 
and how this Book originated. In the first place, let us 
discover out the foundation fact upon which this whole 
thing, the Bible, and all the creeds, faiths, beliefs and 
disbeliefs, whichever they may be, and however false 
or true. 

The whole thing is founded upon this: You may 
smile at this discovery that I make to you, but since 
we want the foundation fact, I will give it, and I think 
upon this we will all agree. Tis this: We die. The 
term of life is uncertain and death is certain. As one 
has said : " From the wondrous tree of life the buds 
and blossoms fall with ripened fruit, and in the com- 
mon bed of earth the patriarchs and babes sleep side 
by side." 

The scenes of earth and earthly things come to an 
end. No matter what the ties may be that bind us to 
this life no matter what attractions life may give, how- 
ever high the hopes or ambition for sublunary glory, 
all must come to an end. 

But though this common fate awaits us all, we all 
alike, say what we may, hold a common dread of this 
last visitor, Death. 

And here we have it. The old, old story brought 






66 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

down from the benighted past. That our first parents 
did some awful thing, and for this thing death comes 
to all that live, and God has hid himself from man and 
repents him of his sad mistake. But through this vast 
stretch of time commencing with this curse and fall, 
there have been certain ones possessed of a greater de- 
gree of righteousness than all the rest, who still com- 
muned with God. This gave him prestige and a monop- 
oly over his fellow men. As is obvious 'twas then as 
now. Man had a great desire to hear and know of God. 
For this desired knowledge he must pay a price in tithes 
of all his increase, and thus the first order of Priesthood 
that we have any account of originated with the Jews. 
This of course, put this Priesthood or dynasty at the 
head of government, and as they received knowledge 
^direct from God they ruled by divine right. Any un- 
usual disturbance of nature was a " miracle," when 
the rainbow shone out after the shower they were re- 
minded of God's promise not to again destroy the 
world by flood, but when nature assumed a threatening 
aspect, such as earthquakes, drought, and pestilence, it 
showed the people that God was displeased in conse- 
quence of some sin committed by them, the Priest must 
make intercession with God, the sin discovered and the 
transgressor — whether few or many — must be punished 
and this God was never appeased until the victims were 
slain. 

But the Jews after a time, as we will see overworked 
their God racket ; the other tribes having their respect- 
ive gods, but not being so savage and warlike, attended 
more to industrial pursuits, outstripped the Jews in the 
march of progress, and finally became their captors. 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 67 

The Jews lost their place upon the earth as a nation. 
Their God seemed to sink into decadence in proportion 
as they sank, and many ordinances and promises that 
were to endure forever have never been fulfilled. 

But all was not lost, the innate nature of man re- 
mained the same ; his thirst for knowledge, his desire to 
fathom the Infinite ; to know of God ; his dread of death ; 
and what might lay beyond the mystic river; his pro- 
clivity to worship, or his proclivity for object worship; 
all this survived the golden age of the Jewish dynasty 
and from the ashes of the Jewish Priesthood was 
evolved the Papal, and the God who in the Jewish 
Priesthood has but one head, now comes out with 
three, and what now acts in the role of "Aaron and 
the goat " is the order of the Priesthood in lieu of 
Aaron, and " Christ the Son " in lieu of the goat. 

Now it will be necessary to take a cursory survey of 
this Papal or Roman Priesthood, that we may better 
understand how the Protestant churches (for there are 
many) came into being. 

CHAPTER VI 

In the year thirty-three according to history there 
was a man crucified. A martyr because he taught 
things inimical to certain doctrines taught by the Jews. 
This martyr was himself a Jew, so we have a right to 
assume he had a fair understanding of the abuses and 
frauds. Priestcraft was practicing upon the credulity 
of the poor ignorant rank and file of their own, for pur- 
poses which were purely mercenary. The Jews were 
now a small tributary to the Roman Empire. That 



68 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

this martyr was a good man we have a right to assume ; 
that he had certain powers not understood by the com- 
mon populace at that time, we have a right to assume. 
That he did nothing more than others might do by 
acting in obedience to certain laws which he was trying 
to inculcate upon his followers' or disciples' minds is 
evinced,, where he says, " even greater things than I do 
shall ye do after me." We have a right to infer if his 
instructions were followed. 

As I have not reached this Christ question as yet, I 
only wish to touch upon it this much for the purpose 
of showing the origin of the Mother Church, or the 
Papal Priesthood ; so will proceed. This man was cruci- 
fied, that could not mean much at that barbarous age. 
It was of common occurrence, and scores at a time were 
executed in this barbarous manner, either for the glory 
of God, or for violation of the civil law. But around 
this one certain traditions were attached, of wonderful 
things he did, called miracles, which I expect to speak 
of in their place. These wondrous things were elab- 
orated upon, as time rolled on, more were attached with 
each succeeding year, and as the people — then as now — 
had a fascination for the marvelous there was a 
premium set upon lying for Christ's sake, and lying be- 
came a virtue. The accumulation of " miracles " and 
historical events became so great by one religious en- 
thusiast trying to outdo his predecessor that they found 
themselves in possession of a superabundance ; more than 
they could make use of; this has necessitated councils 
whose business it has been to take this vast amount of 
literature examine and determine by vote which was, and 
which was not the " word of God." The rejected por- 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 69 

tion has been put in book form ; (it makes a volume of 
about the same size of that contained in the canon) ; 
called the "Apocryphal New Testament." Thu Bibli- 
cal student should read it, it will broaden his under- 
standing. 

It is not my intention to delve into history more than 
is strictly necessary to a fair understanding of the sub- 
ject under review. 

The Roman Church — Whether the Christian reli- 
gion would have endured to the present day had it not 
have been for the fostering care of the Roman or Mother 
Church it is impossible to say. The Christian savant 
may think this a weak expression, and perhaps it is; 
but I do not think he can make it appear otherwise than 
that Christianity received a great impetus when it was 
adopted by the Emperor of Rome, Constantine the 
Great. By this emperor the Roman Catholic Church 
was established by law through the Roman Empire A. 
D. 325. 

It becomes necessary here to a clear understanding 
of church history to make a quotation from his bio- 
graphy. 

In 384, one year before the Nicene council held forth, 
he committed a deed that has thrown a dark shade over 
his memory. He had a gallant and accomplished son, 
named Crispus, who was exceedingly popular, and him 
along with Constantina, his own sister and others, he 
put to death on a charge of treason. 

Niebuhr shows that it was not unlikely Crispus 
cherished ambitious designs. Next year occurred the 
great council at Nice. C. sided with the Orthodox 
fathers, probably for very heterodox reasons. " As yet 



70 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

he was a Pagan, but his sense of justice; and his con- 
viction of the growing importance of the Christians, 
both as a moral and political element in the life of the 
empire, had from the very first induced him to protect 
them." 

As early as 313, he had everywhere granted them tol- 
eration and since then had continued to favor them 
more and more decidedly. " As president of the Nicene 
council, he opposed the Arians, on political grounds, 
as the weaker party; but not being theologically in- 
terested in the dissensions he refrained from active per- 
secution. 

" During the latter years of his life Christianity be- 
came the state religion. Pagan temples were closed 
and sacrifices forbidden. Yet it was only a short time 
before his death, which occurred July 22, 337, that he 
would allow himself to be baptized. The question has 
been much discussed, whether or not he was a Christian. 
The truth seems to be, that he looked upon religion as a 
statesman who feels that his first duty is to rule the 
nation over which he is set in an orderly and peaceable 
manner; had Paganism been still in its prime and pos- 
sessed any real political vitality, it is not likely that a 
man of his secular temperament would have troubled 
himself in regard to the new faith." (National En- 
cyclopedia.) 

Now from this historical sketch let us take a view of 
the situation. " Constantine the Great," a title given him 
by the holy fathers. Consider his character, and then 
we will see what actuated him or the motives that led 
him to establish by law the Christian religion. " It 
says he sided with the Orthodox fathers, probably for 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 71 

very heterodox reasons. Now heterodox means diamet- 
rically opposed to Orthodox. The truth is at this time 
the whole Roman Empire was to use a common phrase 
infested with gods. 'Tis said that at this time there 
were upward of a thousand gods ; and where there are 
so many gods there must from the very nature of the 
case, and with all history to back it, where there is 
such a plurality of gods, there must be the propor- 
tionate amount of dissension and disturbance, which 
might perturb an emperor's slumbers, even assuming 
him conscienceless. These Pagans with gods con- 
tiguous on every hand and discovering the impotency 
of adjacent gods of neighboring hierarchies were losing 
faith in their own. And when this story reached their 
ears, in the fourth century, through Christian prose- 
lytes, that there had been upon the earth but a short 
time before an incarnate God, the son of the great God 
that made the world, the sun, the moon, and all the 
stars. That this God had been slain and by some 
strange philosophy not understood except by those to 
whom 'tis given to know there was a way through him 
that all mankind could get to heaven. This new story 
arrested their attention; the age was ripe for change, 
this new religion had a glamour or charm that seemed 
to soothe the weary breast, it was growing in strength 
while the Pagan religion was on the decline. 

The age and situation were ripe for change. It does 
not look as though it required any superlative degree 
of intelligence at this juncture from a purely political 
standpoint, with one whose will is law, to conclude, to 
cement the whole body politic together with this new 
religion. 



n PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

And now let us make a brief examination of this, now, 
wave-wide religion at its incept, and see what it consists 
of, and what it stands for. It now has the arm of the 
law thrown around it, p and it can now carry out its per- 
secutions high handed. The Pagan temples are closed, 
and now the Mother Church can formulate a creed com- 
mensurate to her needs, and entrench herself with what 
might look like a fair prospect of subjugating the 
world. Her Bible or canon, which was fresh and new, 
just bestowed by the Nicene council, was her own pri- 
vate property, with no particular fears of doubtful dis- 
putation, for reading and writing was a thing that the 
plebeian or private citizen as a rule knew nothing of. 
The holy fathers never intended they should; with 
prophetic vision they saw that education and progress 
would be inimical to their plans and purposes. The pro- 
mulgation of secular knowledge was made a crime. The 
Bible was authority upon all subjects; and to delve 
into the mysteries of nature farther than what was 
necessary to the soul's welfare was prohibited. All that 
was necessary to man's welfare for the present and the 
future would be administered from God's " holy word " 
by the Holy Fathers. 

The highest officer of the Roman Church is the pope, 
and the keys to the gates of heaven entrusted to St. 
Peter by Christ were bequeathed to this great and in- 
fallible potentate. So you see through the pope and 
his vicegerents " whatever is bound on earth is bound in 
heaven. And whatever is loosed on earth is loosed in 
heaven." 

I will quote here from " Dadson " as he has penned 
just what I wish to say, and as it is in accordance with 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 1& 

the early Christian Church history, as you will find if 
you search the records. 

" Christianity now for the first time presented to the 
world a criterion of truth which with the aid of the 
church, was intelligible to the meanest understanding. 
That criterion of truth was the Bible. And herein hence- 
forth consisted the power of Christianity. The Bible 
in future was to be the standard of truth, and the ulti- 
mate appeal on all questions of knowledge. Everything 
that could not be justified by reference to this criterion 
was condemned as pernicious and unlawful. 

A crusade was begun throughout Christendom 
against writings of every description ; and books which 
could be construed into a contradiction of any part — 
even of a single sentence — of the Bible, were condemned 
to be burnt. 

In time the awful Inquisition was established ; and in 
addition to the destruction of books and manuscripts 
which contradicted " Holy Writ," every person in whose 
possession such publications were found was seized by 
the officials of the Inquisition, and subjected to the 
most horrible tortures frequently resulting in death. 
The victims in thousands, after having been crushed 
and maimed in those awful infernal machines, were 
fixed to the stake and burnt alive, to the glory of the 
Christian's God. And now for many centuries the earth 
indeed became a dreadful home for those who dared to 
think otherwise than as the church dictated. " The 
pope obtained supreme power throughout Christendom ; 
emperors and kings became their subjects and trembled 
at the thunders of the church, and threats of excom- 
munication." 



74 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

" The subjects of every monarch owed allegiance first 
to the pope, and dared not disobey a papal mandate 
even though it enjoined disloyalty and treason to their 
lawful sovereign. Every monarch held his crown by 
favor of the pope, and his ecclesiastics filled all the most 
important political positions in the world. No man 
could call his soul his own, and no man was safe from 
the accusation of heresy. 

" Under the constant pressure of terror virtue fled 
from the human heart, and every feeling of love and 
tenderness was crushed and destroyed. Parents in- 
formed against their children, children against their 
parents; and the holy church completed their pious 
deeds of inhumanity by appointing them to assist at 
the torture and burning of one another. 

" We need not dwell upon the well known and awful 
deeds of the church during the middle ages. No pur- 
pose would be served and the feelings are shocked al- 
most beyond endurance at the bare recital of those 
deeds. 

" The terror of the church became so great that 
people were careful to scrutinize every book in their 
possession, to see that it did not contain anything 
which contradicted the Scriptures; and great numbers 
burnt their libraries rather than run the risk of harbor- 
ing however innocently heretical writings. Under such 
a widespread, vigilant and destructive influence it is no 
wonder learning died out, and civilization decayed. 
Toward the end of the fourth century Theodosius 
the Great, established Inquisitions of Faith, and certain 
laws were passed whereby the performance of specified 
Pagan rites subjected the Pagans to the penalty of 
death. 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 75 

" Those who presumed to celebrate Easter on the 
same day as the Jews he condemned to death. The 
Greek language was now ceasing to be known in the 
west, and true learning was becoming extinct. The 
conflict and fermentation of so many opposite interests 
and tempers inflamed the passions of the bishops: and 
the ruling passions were the love of gold and the love 
of dispute. The Catholics as the Orthodox party was 
called, were now quite strong enough to defy the powers 
of the State, and they assumed the control of temporal 
as well as of spiritual matters. The Catholic Church 
was now practically the supreme power of the world, 
and the emperors were little better than her servants. 
The sword and wealth of the state were at her disposal 
and she used both without stint or mercy. 

" Early in the fifth century the famous and beautiful 
Hypatia, daughter of Theon, the mathematician, lec- 
tured in Alexandria on the abstruse subjects of Greek 
philosophy. She was in every way a most admirable 
woman and possessed of the virtues and learning of 
the early Greeks. The episcopal throne of Alexandria 
was occupied at this time by a monster — unusually de- 
praved even for that depraved age — named Cyril. 
Among the many fanatics which Christianity had pro- 
duced must be named the monks and nuns who over ran 
Egypt at this period. 

" Alexandria was full of them, and their dark super- 
stitions made them at all times ready for the commission 
of the worst crimes. Hypatia's learning had roused 
the hatred and bigotry of Cyril, and by his instructions 
a mob of howling monks waylaid her/ 

" On a fatal day, in the holy season of Lent, Hypatia 
was torn from her chariot, stripped naked, dragged to 



76 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

the church, and inhumanly butchered by the hands of 
Peter the reader, and a troop of savage and merciless 
fanatics ; her flesh was scraped from her bones with 
sharp oyster shells and the quivering limbs were de- 
livered to the flames." 

It is not my intention to inflame your minds with 
recitals from these dark pages of history — which would 
require volumes — I only wish to give you the merest 
outline necessary to a partial understanding of what 
the Mother Church stands for, of what she has done 
and still would do were it not for the forces that oppose 
her. 

I believe there is a "Divinity that shapes our ends, 
rough hew them how we will"; but the process may 
lead us through sunless caverns of ignorance and nights 
of darkness spanning ages. It is not according to the 
decree of destiny that such a hydra-headed monster 
should usurp the power of the whole world and retain 
it forever. She became so bloated by lust and greed 
that all pretense to spirituality had neither form nor 
substance; their chief occupation was absolving sins 
or granting indulgences, for revenue. Her persecutions 
might or might not always prove remunerative; the 
former was always profitable. 

The beginning of the end came with what is known 
as M the Reformation," a great Ecclesiastical move- 
ment which took place in the sixteenth century. The 
chief actor in this reform movement was Martin Luther. 
It will be necessary to quote briefly from the Inter- 
national Encyclopedia (see Martin Luther). 

" The idea that it was in the power of the church to 
forgive sin had gradually grown into the notion which 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 77 

was widely spread, that the pope could issue pardons of 
his own free will, which being dispensed to the faithful, 
exonerated them from the consequences of their trans- 
gressions. 

" The sale of these pardons had become an organized 
part of the papal system. Money was largely needed 
at Rome, to feed the great expenses of the papal court ; 
and its numerous emissaries sought everywhere to raise 
funds by the sale of ' indulgences ' as they were called 
for the sins of frail humanity: the principal of these 
was John Tetzel, a Dominican friar who had established 
himself at Juterbach, on the border of Saxony. Luther's 
indignation at the shameless traffic which this man car- 
ried on, finally became irrepressible: God willing he 
exclaimed: ' I will beat a hole in his drum.' He drew out 
ninety-five theses on the doctrine of indulgences, which 
he nailed upon the gate of the church at Wittenberg, 
and which he offered to maintain in the university 
against all impugners. The general purport of these 
theses was to deny to the pope all right to forgive sins. 
If the sinner was truly contrite, he received complete 
forgiveness. ' The pope's absolution had no value in 
and for itself.' " 

This quotation will answer for a text. The "Ref- 
ormation " has been of great value to the world ; it was 
bound to come. Now let us make an examination as 
free from prejudice as our frail and limited minds will 
enable us, and see just how and in what way we have 
been benefited. It has given us what is known as the 
Protestant churches or creeds. Why they are called 
Protestant is from the fact that they protested or re- 
belled against the papal or Mother Church as it is 



78 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

new called. This puts a fence between them and the 
papal Bull, and we have no doubt he was formidable to 
those to whom he could be set against, so here is one 
point gained, to those who are outside of papal in- 
fluence. Then 'tis said there are over one hundred dif- 
ferent creeds born from her prolific womb (the Mother 
Church) and this gives that number more of different 
ways of reaching heaven. And this by many may be 
considered another great point gained. Again through 
the controversies, crusades, cataclysms, and upheavals 
wrought through this reformation, gave to the world 
the Bible, this " word of God," so that each individual 
can sit in council and draw his own conclusions. 

And here is another which I consider the great point 
gained through the Reformation. We now have this 
Bible printed in all the different languages throughout 
all Christendom for all to read, which the Mother 
Church fought strenuously against and why? Because 
she knew its contents, and she knew where and how the 
New Testament originated ; she knew it would not stand 
the test of reason, or bear up under the searchlight of 
truth: and well she knew when in time it was to be 
analyzed by later day intelligence the fraud would be 
liable or sure to be laid bare: and "unto this day " she 
enjoins her followers to leave the study of the "Holy 
Scriptures " with the " Holy Fathers " because they 
only are endued with wisdom from on high to give 
the correct interpretation to the lambs of the flock ; 
therefore while the lambs may not be strictly forbidden 
reading the " Word " they are acknowledged by the 
Papal See as unprofitable and harmful. 

The lamp of learning, which was so nearly extin- 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 79 

guished through this dark and priestly reign of terror, 
was again restored to the world: And here let me 
ask, is it to this we owe our present civilization and 
all it stands for — is it to the Christian religion? Here 
is another superlatively great point gained, the resto- 
ration of learning. 

" Now let us reason together." God is said to have 
said this to David, if I mistake not. I know God 
makes use of this expression somewhere in the Book 
according to his word ; I cannot just now recall where, 
but it shows this God has at one time at least asked 
man to use his reason. Now let us see what changes 
in belief and practice were wrought through the Refor- 
mation, brought about by Martin Luther and his co- 
laborers : what changes in religious thought that would 
tend to make mankind happier and give him greater 
assurance of heaven or a future life? Our Protestant 
Bible as we have it now is considerably reduced in size 
from the Roman; while the Protestant has but sixty- 
six books, the Roman Catholic has eighty. This I 
look upon as being advantageous to Protestants ; they 
have a smaller scope to search over for hidden treas- 
ure. 

CHAPTER Vn 

But to our subject. Is or was the Mother Church 
all wrong, and are the Protestant churches all right? 
We have prima facie evidence that they are not all 
right, or there could not be so many of them. It is 
evident there must be error with all but one, so the 
rational presumption is there is error with them all. 



80 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

The truth is, the orthodox changes wrought through 
the Reformation amount to this : it is a case where 
one error is replaced by another. The mediatorial 
power of absolving sin is wrested from the Pope and 
bestowed to Christ absolutely, and through him alone 
can sins be remitted. Now I have spoken of this error 
before, but as I again come against it, will give an 
illustration in regard to its justice. You may call 
this commonplace and old, but it embodies a principle 
that cannot well grow old: it is broad in its applica- 
tion and can be applied to an infinite number of cases. 

For example : Here are two men ; neither of them 
make any pretension to any religion, both of them what 
the preacher would call in an unsaved condition; the 
things of this world are their only thought or care. 
No. 1 sees how he can be greatly benefited by putting 
No. % out of the way. They both may have heard 
the story of the thief on the cross or salvation at the 
eleventh hour, and " Though your sins are as scarlet, 
Christ's blood will wash them white as snow." No. 1 
may have even considered how his crime would or could 
be expiated by this plan of repentance and a contrite 
heart, after the deed was done: he has laid his plans 
to escape the civil law. The deed is done. No. 1 
murders No. 2 ; but his plan of escape did not work 
as he expected, he is hunted down, proven guilty, and 
the sentence of death is passed upon him ; the day of 
execution is fixed; no earthly hope, but he is furnished 
spiritual council and advice, the word of God is un- 
folded to him, there are many prayers sent heaven- 
ward for him, he is converted, and upon execution re- 
ceives a free passport to heaven, while No. 2 has his 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 81 

portion " where the worm dieth not and the fire is not 
quenched." Now, does this not look as though there 
were a mistake somewhere? Is it a little thing, when 
one looks backward o'er the past and contemplates the 
dark deeds committed in the name of Israel's God; 
when he comes into a knowledge of a truth that will 
free mankind from this nightmare of delusion ; is it a 
little thing that he try to arrest the attention of the 
deluded throng by trying to give them something 
better ? 

Oh! you say the world is overrun with religious fa- 
natics who are trying to deceive even the " very elect ; 
my faith is nailed to the Cross of Christ, and I do not 
want any of your new plans, or new religions." 

I have only this to offer in reply: I have nothing 
new to give you ; what I have is very ancient, it is found 
in the Bible, the Bible proves it in both the Old Tes- 
tament and the New. 

It is nothing to be accepted by faith; it is knowl- 
edge born of truth and will endure. God's word is 
Truth. Wisdom and truth are synonymous. Truth is 
truth and will endure. Would we make a mistake in 
making life's voyage, whether it be protracted or brief, 
and whether storms threaten and you are tempest- 
tossed, or whether your voyage is propitious and you 
are smiled upon by Dame Fortune and your bark court 
favoring tide and wind, to believe 

" That right is right since God is God, 
That right the day will win; 
To doubt would be disloyalty, 
To falter would be sin"? 



82 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

And should we not ever be willing 

" To accept the Truth wherever found, 
On Christian or on heathen ground"? 

Now, am I a misanthrope, and are all my intentions 
in connection with what I am writing only meant for 
evil? I certainly do not wish to be understood that 
way. I deplore the situation the world is in to-day, 
religiously, socially, and financially. It is the Father- 
hood of God and the Brotherhood of Man that I would 
be pleased to have replace the present conditions. And 
this I believe can only be brought about by an unfold- 
ment of the truth. I think when this is better under- 
stood we will have a better reign of Righteousness than 
we have yet known. There have been dreams of a 
" Millennium." I think when the truth is better under- 
stood and taught this much talked of and longed for 
time will begin its dawn. 

When the first government was instituted of which 
we have any record — that of the Israelites, with their 
God as tutelar, and he in such close proximity that 
every detail of affairs within the camp was under his 
direct observation and supervision, and if any of " the 
chosen " went whoring after other gods, they must be 
stoned to death with stones outside the camp. God 
seemed to believe in rigid economy; this was not an 
expensive way of removing evil-doers. 

When the papal church came into being and estab- 
lished her dynasty, with the "Prince of Peace" as 
tutelar, the ingenuity of man was taxed and there was 
a premium to those who could invent the machine that 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 83 

would inflict the most pain without immediately assail- 
ing the vital organs. The cross, the thumb-screw, the 
torch and fagot, the stake, infernal machines stretch- 
ing the body and breaking the joints, and, if not killed, 
left maimed and crippled as living examples for un- 
godly behavior. 

Time has wrought its changes; the implements of 
inquisitorial torture to avenge God have had their day. 
Has the world been converted to Christianity by these, 
either has it been by the sweet influence of the Prot- 
estant preacher? No, nor never will be. The truth 
is, modern thought has produced such an undercurrent 
that the Christian religion is steadily and surely los- 
ing ground and her hold upon the people; this is ap- 
parent to both friend and foe. 

•Can we ever duly appreciate what has been done for 
mankind by those who have not believed? 

The Christian churches, Mother Church and all, have 
been bereft of the power to torture or slay dissenters ; 
they can only anathematize to this hell of their own 
creation, or they may content themselves with ostra- 
cism, excommunication or interdiction to such as may 
teach that which is inimical to their creeds. 

This is what I may expect in full measure. 

Possibly some of the readers may be curious to 
know who is writing this, and while I am telling of 
so much I do not believe, whether the time is coming 
when I may tell of what I do believe. 

I expect to tell you of what I believe, but that prop- 
erly falls in Part II. of my work. 

I was born in the town of Colchester, Delaware 



84 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

County, State of New York., A. D. 1848. There were 
seven children of us: two sisters older than I, and I 
the eldest brother, three brothers younger. Have for 
the most part of my life resided in the town in which 
I was born and where I still reside. When the Civil 
War broke out in 1861, I was in my thirteenth year. 
In the fall of 1864 I had just reached my sixteenth 
milestone. I enlisted with my father and went with 
him to the war. As the war closed in the summer of 
'65, we both returned home in good health and resumed 
our former occupation — lumbering. Previous to this, 
in the winter of 1859 diphtheria broke out in our school 
district; these were the first cases of this dread dis- 
ease in this part of the country, and the doctors did 
not even know what to name it. It was very malig- 
nant, and up to the time I went to the war our school 
was terribly decimated, and I, with my understanding 
of the meaning of death at that time from what I had 
been taught 2 wrapped my life at this time in deep 
gloom ; this, together with religious revivals which were 
going the rounds at that time, and the manner in which 
they were conducted — God's wrath was dwelt upon 
much more then than now — made impressions upon my 
mind that time has never effaced and without doubt 
lends an influence at this time which prompts me to 
write. 

My educational advantages were not of the best; I 
went to school but little after I was thirteen years old. 
I attended our district school the winter following my 
return from the war about six weeks, and the next win- 
ter about the same, but by applying my mind to books 
as best I could, and by getting help wherever it was 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 85 

available, I obtained a license to teach the fall I was 
nineteen years old and taught a district school that 
winter. I worked diligently at my books, and my ex- 
aminations averaged fair and I taught several winter 
terms; but competition was sharp, and this grade of 
teachers outnumbered the schools, and I learned then 
what has many times since been forced upon my mind: 
that we seem to be many times badly in each other's 
way. So I concluded to give up this field of labor and 
turn my attention to carpenter-work, and this I found 
to be about the same — we were in each other's way, 
and this, I observe, holds good in all the walks of life, 
in religion and politics as well, we seem to be in each 
other's way. This is called competition, and competi- 
tion does not seem to foster brotherly love. Where 
is the remedy? In the summer of 1871 I married Ger- 
trude S. Platner; our first birthdays both fell in the 
same year; she had also taught school; we were both 
poor, but were hopeful of the future. There were four 
children born to us, three boys and one girl, our young- 
est : she was never very strong, and died at the age of 
twenty-one. — I expect to speak again of her by and 
by in Part II. — Our boys are all living. We united 
with the M. E. Church a short time after our marriage. 
I then thought it a duty enjoined upon me to study 
the Scripture; it is always advised by the parson — if 
not by the priest — as profitable, and as I had acquired 
a habit of trying to probe well into whatever subject 
with which I engaged, thought I must not deal in 
superficialities on so momentous a subject as this, the 
word of God. Of course I had read the Bible before 
this, but, as the young are likely to, without giving 



86 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

it much thought, supposing that the mysteries of God- 
liness were inscrutable and we must simply believe. I 
never took very great interest in reading one's biog- 
raphy, so wish to make this as brief as consistent to 
the understanding of the reader. The more I read the 
Bible the more I doubted, and doubt is not belief, nor 
is it any vehicle upon which to reach heaven, accord- 
ing to this Holy Book, and its expounders. I had a 
great desire during my early life to study medicine, 
and in the year of '76 thought possibly my finances 
might warrant the undertaking, so I commenced work. 
My preceptors, the town doctors, spoke in high terms 
of my progress, but there were breakers ahead. I had 
a certain amount of money tied up in a farm on a 
second mortgage, and I had to take this farm or lose 
the money; so, after studying medicine for the most 
part of a year, but not steady, was obliged to abandon 
this project altogether and attend to farming. 

At this time there was what is known in American 
history as the "resumption act," the resumption of 
specie payment: and our country during this time 
waded through one of her greatest financial struggles 
recorded in our history, and the times were very hard 
and financial failures reached a stage that was appal- 
ling: but my wife and I struggled along with the hope 
that we would find it better farther on. I replaced the 
old worthless buildings with new ones, purchased more 
land, so that this is now a fair dairy farm for our 
rough and broken country. 

I sold this farm about four years ago, built a house 
in a hamlet called Downsville, about three miles dis- 
tant from this farm, in which my wife and I now live. 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 87 

Time rolls his ceaseless course, and has borne us on 
to our sixtieth mile post, but we are both still in fair 
health, with bright hopes still of the future, our hopes 
now stretch away o'er the undulating vale of time till 
they span the mystic river. 

With this brief introduction we will now proceed with 
our book. I have never been a favorite of fortune in 
the affairs of this world, in regard to favor or prefer- 
ment. The most fortunate tide in my affairs of life was 
that my time just reached the period of the Civil War 
which seemed most opportunely, and for that service I 
receive a small pension of eight dollars per month, this 
with a small rental from a part of my house and a 
small amount from this farm, enables me to do this 
literary work which without this pension I do not see 
how I could. 

What I spoke of a few lines back, how we seem to be 
in each other's way, and the subterfuges resorted to, to 
crowd each other down and out, the commercial war- 
fare that is continually waged and the same in politics 
and in religion, the perfect sangfroid with which one 
Christian can do his brother without apparent remorse : 
this with a thousand and one things, many which I 
expect to name has led me from the Christian religion, 
and what were at first doubts have since culminated into 
convictions that the Bible and the creeds founded 
thereon were error. 

This was my tacit belief for a term of years, from 
which I derived no comfort, and when in conversation I 
would hear doubts or disbelief expressed in regard to 
the Christian faith, I would ask do you know of 
something better to take its place? implying that if 



88 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

they did not, it would behoove them to keep still; and 
this was the charge I had against Ingersoll, Paine, 
Voltaire, and all who wrote against the Christian Bible 
and Religion, that it hardly looked warrantable unless 
they knew of something better to offer, because I 
thought Christianity with all its inconsistencies was 
better than the force arrayed against it as I then un- 
derstood things, and thought the tendency was to wan- 
tonly destroy the comfort of millions, and no thought 
of trying to offer anything to placate the loss. 

What has changed my mind not only from speaking 
but to put my thoughts in book form and give them to 
the world, abnegating the foundation of the Chris- 
tian's faith, the Bible, as a revelation from God? In 
the latter part of the summer of 1900 by a concur- 
rence of circumstances which are not important only as 
it resulted in bringing me up against the subject of 
Spiritualism, in a more tangible manner than ever be- 
fore, and I learned for the first time in my life that 
there was a paper published in the U. S. A. that 
stood as an exponent for Spiritualism, or that there 
had ever been a book published upon this subject. 

Now to Spiritualists this may look strange indeed; 
but 'tis true and I have no doubt but the number would 
reach into millions at the present time who are kept 
ignorant of this truth by making them believe that the 
Old, Old, Story, is all that has ever been given or ever 
may be, upon which to attach a faith. 

So here you have it I am a firm believer in Spirit- 
ualism. I do not call myself a Spiritualist, but I am 
satisfied that the phenomena of Spiritualism is a fact 
and that the philosophy is indeed rational. So we will 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 89 

for the time let all that attaches to this subject rest 
until we arrive at part two of this work. 

I have come to believe, dear friends, that when this 
knowledge comes to be generally understood that we 
will not be so in each other's way ; that we will have a 
much better world to live in then than now; that war 
and strife and peculation will diminish as this 
knowledge increases because we will have a foundation 
based on truth, and we will find ourselves in touch with 
the Spirit world and they will teach us the better way. 
That State prisons and machines for killing criminals 
will not be so much needed, for crime will diminish in 
proportion as this glorious knowledge grows. Is not 
this a consummation devoutly to be wished! Who be- 
holding the present situation of this sad world would 
not lend a helping hand to bring about this change? 

It would be more agreeable to me to drop this Bible 
question, and enter at once upon this subject that I 
have reserved for the latter part of my work, but I 
feel that it would then be incomplete, and I would not 
wish to submit a matter of such momentous importance 
to the public in a halfway manner. So now that we 
have broken the ground, and I have defined my posi- 
tion, so I hope that I may not be misunderstood, we 
will proceed with our examination of the Scripture. 
What we find of value we will carefully label for future 
use; while the great bulk we will be happy indeed to 
repudiate, for it can in no way — as I shall expect to 
show — contribute to our enjoyment in this world or 
the next. 

Am I seeking to destroy the comfort of millions? 
Here is a newspaper clipping which I think answers this 



90 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

question quite satisfactorily : " Why should we seek to 
destroy the comfort that millions of tired and perplexed 
souls to-day find in what they understand to be the 
promises of God? " The words credited to Jesus (John 
v. 30.) "Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think 
ye have eternal life" crowd themselves on our atten- 
tion until we opened to Deut. xx. 10-16, inclusive, and 
read : " When thou contest nigh unto a city to fight 
against it, then proclaim peace unto it. And it shall 
be, if it make the answer of peace, and open unto thee, 
then it shall be, that all the people that is found therein 
shall be tributaries unto thee and they shall serve thee." 
(that is, shall be their slaves.) " And if it will make 
no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, 
then thou shalt besiege it: And when the Lord thy God 
hath delivered it unto thy hands, thou shalt smite every 
male thereof with the edge of the sword: But the wo- 
men, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that 
is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take 
unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine 
enemies, which the Lord thy God hath given thee. 
Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities which are very 
far off from thee, which are not of the cities of these 
nations. But of the cities of these people, which the 
Lord thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou 
shalt save alive nothing that breatheth." 

" It would be very wrong to destroy the comfort 
that millions of tired and perplexed souls, who derive 
from these blessed words of the Lord our God who de- 
lighteth to slaughter and feast on others' toil. Several 
readings, to impress every feature of these inspired 
words on the mind should be made. And note good 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 91 

reader, that holy book inerrant in every feature, trans- 
lated into near three hundred different languages, and 
scattered broadcast among all peoples for their guid- 
ance, contains not only these blessed words quoted, but 
scores of similar passages follow, each concluding: 

" So Joshua smote all the country of the hills, and 
the South and of the vale, and of the springs, and all 
their kings: he left none remaining but utterly de- 
stroyed all that breathed, as the Lord God of Israel 
commanded. 

" No, no, such valuable words of comfort should not 
be withheld from the Christian world. And the book 
containing such noble sentiments should have a place 
as a textbook in our public schools, and a copy should 
be placed in the hands of every little heathen and dirty 
little infidel as well showing the loving character of the 
Lord our God." 

Let us see ! Was it not this God, so generous to his 
friends so cruel to the invaded cities, the inhabitants 
of which for declining to submit, and become the slaves 
of the aggressors, did he not repent that he had made 
man, and was he not grieved to his heart on account of 
his defective job, and was it not he who overwhelmed 
all in a common ruin, saving only a favored few 
to people the world again? It must have been a real 
" comfort " to those people to be thus destroyed, as 
there is a pleasure in directing attention to the affair. 
"Paul caught the spirit of these events when he de- 
clared, Great is the mystery of Godliness." What think 
ye? 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 



CHAPTER VIII 

Now we will commence our salient review at the be- 
ginning, with what is known as the " Pentateuch " 
the first five books of the Bible ascribed to Moses. Now 
I will postulate that these books are fiction, and this 
great and mighty man Moses is a myth. 

Now if I succeed in discovering to you internal evi- 
dence sufficient to remove all reasonable doubt in regard 
to this proposition ; it looks as though this great Bible 
problem might be quite easy of solution. Because if 
mankind has not been lost through the disobedience 
of this first pair, the first member of the equation is 
eliminated, and that makes the other member perfectly 
apparent. 

We will now take the first three chapters, and give 
them a cursory survey. Here is contained in these 
three chapters the whole cosmogony with two accounts 
of man's creation. Now we will consider the first verse 
of this Book. M In the beginning God created the 
heaven and the earth." Now I have heard the Theolog- 
ian dilate upon the Godlike wisdom contained in this 
sentence, for its transcendental evasiveness: that it re- 
quired infinite wisdom to commence this eternal word 
with such an elastic expression. To dilate upon all 
this paltry stuff accredited to God would make my 
book larger than the Bible itself and this I must guard 
against. 

Somebody with God-given vision has placed this 
creation at 4004 years before Christ. It must have 
been God-given or he would not have drawn the line 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 93 

so fine as to the matter of four years, they would have 
expressed the time in round numbers. Now I do not 
believe there is a theologian of the present day that 
has been through the mill, that will say that he be- 
lieves this biblical account of creation, and yet they 
will stand in the pulpit and proclaim the Bible in its 
entirety to be the infallible word of God. 

Just a few evenings since there was what they call 
a prayer service at the M. E. church at our place where 
several ministers of the same cloth meet and have a 
longer and stronger pull than usual. Well I attended 
these most of the time, perhaps for the same reason 
that Satan did when the sons of God came to present 
themselves before the Lord (spoken of in Job) Satan 
came also, and that is what I did. I went purposely to 
hear them discourse and this is what I heard one of 
them say : " That he did not know whether this story 
of Eden was so or not nor did he care; he seemed to 
hold that it was so far-fetched that it was probably 
legendary; but the all important thing was to get on 
the anxious seat, give your heart to God get con- 
verted and be saved." I thought to myself, do you con- 
sider what you are saying? Here he would ignore or 
speak in such deprecating terms of the very foundation 
upon which the whole plan of their religion rests, be- 
cause if this is not true the whole plan tumbles. If 
mankind was not lost through this transgression, the 
ministers have lost their hold upon humanity, because 
if we were not lost through Adam, we are under no 
obligations to Christ for salvation, through your assist- 
ance. Therefore, your help is not needed. 

Now I must reiterate this because if this little silly 



94 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

legend fails its purpose, which science, reason, common 
sense and everything points to the contrary: yet the 
whole scheme, law, prophets, mediator, all of this 
tremendous world-work, synagogues, cathedrals, 
churches, temples, theological seminaries, missionaries 
to convert the heathen, priests, preachers and much 
more, all hinges upon this simple antiquated story, of 
Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and this marvel- 
ously endowed snake. 

We must of necessity skip the genealogy of the early 
patriarchs since they do not choose to enlighten us in 
regard to their diet or rules of living, whereby they 
attained to such (great longevity approximating a 
thousand years, but will turn our attention to a matter 
more pertinent to the case ; the God question ; found in 
Gen. vi., commencing with the chapter, it reads : 
" And it came to pass when men began to multiply on 
the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto 
them: That the sons of God saw the daughters of men, 
that they were fair; and they took them wives of all 
which they chose. And the Lord said, My spirit shall 
not always strive with man, for that he is also flesh: 
yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years." 

" There were giants in the earth in those days ; and 
also after that, when the sons of God came in unto 
the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, 
the same became mighty men which were of old, men 
of renown." 

Here is something upon which the mind must need 
to linger. " Great are the mysteries of Godliness," but 
mystery fails here, because mystery is swallowed up in 
mystery. How many Gods are there we would ask, 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 95 

that lay claim to this Bible? Now since the God 
question with which we are or should be concerned, we 
will refer back to (Gen. iii. 22.) "And the Lord God 
said, Behold the man is become as one of us, to lenow 
good and evil; and now lest he put forth his hand and 
take also of the tree of life, and eat and live forever." 

Now the question of Evolution, while it may be very 
interesting as a matter for speculation, but it is not 
the all important question; because we know that we 
are here, just how we came to be, we might be glad to 
know, if we were satisfied as to the correctness of the 
account. But what in the future, what after death, is 
a matter that should interest us all. And this Scripture 
the commencement of the Bible is of the utmost impor- 
tance to the Truth Seeker. 

And the question is, Who was God talking to at this 
time, as he was brooding over his mistake? and was 
reflecting on what farther calamities might befall if 
there were no interposition? Was he communing with 
himself, soliloquizing! The language of the Scripture 
does not justify this conclusion. 

Was he talking to Gods of his own plane of equality 
and power? Was he talking to his lecherous sons who 
were implicated in the production of this race of hybrid 
giants who were productive of so much wickedness that 
it " repented the Lord that he had made man upon the 
earth and it grieved him at his heart ? " Was he talking 
to his only begotten Son who was slain upon Calvary 
to atone for this calamity, which had just been pre- 
cipitated. Who was God talking to? It would hardly 
seem likely that he was talking to those little Gods 
that he was so jealous of, the gods of the Philistines^ 



96 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

the Jebusites and the gods of all the nations that he 
set his mind to exterminate, when he discovered those 
redeeming qualities of Father Abraham. 

This is a question dear reader upon which the theo- 
logian is silent. But it is very common to hear from 
the pulpit reference to the true and living God, which 
tacitly implies that there are a great many dead ones. 
This we all firmly believe, and this I think will aid us in 
our studies, that as knowledge increases Gods die ; and 
who knows that Israel's God is still alive? We know 
he is not doing business at the old stand, as in the 
days of Joshua, and I for one entertain no doubt, but 
this God is doomed to pass into oblivion with the other 
tribal gods he was so jealous of in their day. 

In making this review of this Pentateuch there are 
three things which I consider fundamental or para- 
mount : 

First — That which reveals the character of Israel's 
God. 

Second — That the Pentateuch is fiction and was 
fabricated many centuries later than the time ascribed 
to it. 

Third — The rational proof that there were excar- 
nate intelligences or entities known of at the time this 
Pentateuch was written, whenever that may have been. 
The latter I consider of greatest importance. 

Therefore what I may say upon this part of the 
Bible will be along one or the other of these lines. 

Now we will consider for a brief space the probabili- 
ties of Noah's flood. Within the last forty or fifty 
years this old legend has been steadily losing ground. 
I doubt if there are but very few among the ministry 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 97 

to-day if you took them behind the curtain and asked 
them frankly if they believed this story as recorded in 
(Gen. vi. vii. viii.) about this deluge, they might try 
to dodge the issue to some extent but they would tell 
you that they did not really believe it in a literal sense ; 
that it was allegorical and designed to — teach — now 
what can possibly attach to such a story as this either 
literally or allegorically, what useful lesson can be 
drawn, that places a God in such a light as does this 
history of this flood. According to the chronology 
this flood occurred sixteen hundred years after the 
creation of the first pair. But with the duration of 
life reaching to near a thousand years, and the con- 
ception of the females having been greatly multiplied 
in consequence of the curse, and God's sons taking 
such as they chose for wives, would give by this time 
a goodly population, upon whom God could wreak ven- 
genance. 

Now we will take a look at a few of the salient 
features relative to this story to show what a bungler 
this Bible writer was ; consider the dimensions of this 
strange craft, four hundred and seventy-five feet long, 
about eighty feet wide, and forty-eight feet high, from 
keel to deck; this was certainly a tremendous hulk to 
go floating about with neither sail nor rudder : but the 
believer may say the highest mountains were all in- 
undated fifteen cubits upward, so she could not run 
aground, and as she had the high seas all to herself 
there was no danger of collision. But consider the 
amount of water this would require. Mt. Everest, a 
peak of the Himalaya range in Asia, exceeds 29,000 
feet high, compute the amount that needs have fell in 



98 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

those forty days and forty nights, 29,000 feet means 
over five and one half miles, this depth of water spread 
over the face of the whole earth ; consider the situation, 
this must have floated admiral Noah high above the 
limit of perpetual frost, where it would have been ex- 
ceedingly cold, and with his animals from the torrid 
zone, and his animals from the frigid zone, herbivaries 
and carnivories in fine the whole zoo. Noah and his 
family included with no means of ventilation except 
this one window, and that but twenty inches square; 
just for a moment consider the condition that the 
atmosphere would have been at, with this vast men- 
agerie, with no sanitary provisions for cleaning from 
these animals except through this named window, forty- 
eight feet from the keel floor, and no other means of 
ventilation. One hundred and fifty days with this 
ark floating at the high water mark, and how much 
longer they were shut in is not just clear. Is it any 
wonder after Noah got released from thtis respon- 
sibility, that he should conclude to take a little toddy 
and have a little debauch? And this is what he did 
according to the account. 

To dilate upon the absurdities contained in this 
legend which the world is fast outgrowing would re- 
quire much time and space which I think can be more 
profitably spent elsewhere. 

Such an aggregation of life shut in such a place as 
is here described could live but a few hours. Consider 
the condition things would be in, the second day, then 
the length of time between their entrance and exit. As 
Lord Byron says, " This was a curious crew as well 
as cargo." 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OP REASON 99 

Is there anything that looks as though the world 
was made better by this terrible destruction. The 
first thing Noah does when he went forth from the 
ark, see (Gen. vii. 20.) "And Noah builded an altar 
unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of 
every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the 
altar" Now at one time 'tis stated that these all 
came in by two's, so if Noah went to killing them even 
by one's it would mean extermination, so this must be 
doctored to make it fit and have the clean beasts and 
fowls come by sevens, whether 'tis seven males and 
seven females is left to our conjecture. 

I speak of this deluge to show the taste of the nar- 
rator, and his conceptions of God. Just see what a 
finite, little minded, repentant, remorseful, changeable, 
childlike God this God of Israel is made out to be. 

He smells Noah's roasted meat and this seems to 
rouse him to a realization of what he has done. 

He comes down with a contrite heart and repents 
him of what he has done, and makes some magnani- 
mous promises over which he has no control. But the 
narrator evinces some sagacity in the selection of these 
promises. God promised what had been from the earli- 
est traditions, "the changes of the seasons produced 
by the earth's revolutions, of these this God knew no 
more about than did Noah." 

These promises of this God is looked upon by some 
as proof conclusive, that this God did really and truly 
create the world and the whole stellar universe. 

But just consider upon what paltry premises you 
predicate this conclusion. Now here it is : Noah roasted 
some meat, God smelt the odor arising from this meat 



100 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

and promises Noah that the change of the seasons shall 
continue. 

Is this any proof that this was anything but a man- 
made God? Suppose I or any other man should prom- 
ise the same thing, it would come just the same whether 
we did or not, and that is all it would amount to, and 
just the same with Moses' God that made these prom- 
ises to Noah, in regard to the seasons of seedtime and 
harvest, and the rainbow. 

There is an unfortunate incident connected with 
Noah's debauch, wherein he cursed, Ham one of his 
three sons, and his posterity to the end of time. But 
accidents will happen in the best of families. 

All who derive comfort and joy in the belief that this 
flood took place as recorded, please raise your right 
hand. I am happy to say I see no hands raised. 

We will now turn our attention for a brief space to 
a matter recorded in (Gen. xi.) to what is known as 
the dispersion or confusion of tongues. Now if this 
flood were a fact this history might be a natural 
sequence of this flood, and God confounding their 
conditions. When these primitive tribes discovered 
other tribes that spoke a different language this simple 
legend has originated and comes down to us that the 
different languages extant upon the earth is in con- 
sequence of this flood, and God confounding thear 
tongues while they were engaged on this tower. But 
observe the people are still living to the good old age 
of six or seven hundred years, when God promises in 
(Gen, vi.) that his days shall be but one hundred and 
twenty years. My object principally in speaking of 
this dispersion, is to call your attention to this plain 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 101 

Scriptural contradiction right before your face, with 
your open Bible without your needing to turn a leaf. 
See (Gen. x. 5.) "By these were the isles of the gen- 
tiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, 
after their families, in their nations." Then look on 
the opposite page and read Gen. xi. 1. " And the whole 
earth was of one language, and of one speech" Observe 
these two quotations and see if there is not more con- 
fusion than the confusion of tongues here referred to. 
If this were not pure fabrication the word " gentile " 
could not appear at this age and place. This occurs 
but two years after Noah left the ark according to the 
marginal chronology, and the word " gentile " had not 
been coined, nor could there be any occasion for its use 
until after the Jewish Priesthood had been established, 
and this was not until after the Exodus from Egypt, 
Thereafter according to this history mankind were 
divided into two prime classes, Jews or Israelites and 
Gentiles. Readers think of these things. 

Now we will turn to Genesis xii. Now it will be 
necessary to call your attention to some certain things, 
which perhaps most of you may know, but some do not 
seem to realize; 'tis this, that the headings of the 
chapters is no part of the Canon, and these headings 
are often very misleading, and also the italicized words 
pervading the whole Book are interpolations ; sometimes 
they do not particularly affect the original, and then 
again they produce a material change. Now this 
chapter is important because here the Christian dis- 
covers what purports to be the first specific promise of 
Christ, and the first Patriarch is chosen whose genealogy 
is traced down through all of this turmoil of war and 



102 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

devastation, the rise and fall of kingdoms decreed of 
God and those that God did not decree to Christ. Now 
unfortunately this promise of Christ is embodied in the 
heading of this chapter, and not in the chapter itself, 
and one individual has as much right as another to 
study and draw conclusions from this chapter and see 
for himself if Christ is really and truly promised. 

Now as this is the first great Patriarch whose line- 
age is traced to Christ, and one to whom so much 
attaches of vital importance to the Christian's claim, 
we must go slow and examine with care. You will 
see Abram first mentioned in Genesis xi. 26. "And 
Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor 
and Haran." In verse twenty-nine of this same chap- 
ter he is married to his half sister at least so he says. 

Here are the three first verses of Genesis xii. 1-3, 
where Abram is chosen of the Lord : " Now the Lord 
said unto Abram. Get thee out of thy country, and 
from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a 
land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a 
great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name 
great; and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless 
them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: 
And in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.''* 
We are at a loss to know in just what manner God did 
his communicating at this age of the world; but let 
us make a brief analysis of this communication, that 
we may make ourselves acquainted with this " God of 
Israel." 

Abram is to get out of his country and away from 
his kindred; perhaps the theologian might point out 
the wisdom there is in this, but it is beyond me. 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 103 

But here is the part that impinges upon my men- 
tality, and exerts a powerful influence toward placing 
this god on the level of manmade gods, that has 
wrought great mischief in our world, is this, " / will 
bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth 
thee." 

No conditions enjoined in regard to behavior on 
the part of Abram; he could go it irresponsible, he 
could encroach upon whomsoever he chose, and if a 
frown of resentment was offered, God's curse was upon 
him. 

What kind of a civilization would be likely to be 
built up, under such a Godship as this. God interfer- 
ing with all the trifling details of life. Choosing one 
man out of this population that had but so recently 
sprung up, the posterity of righteous Noah (428 years 
after the flood) to whom "he made such handsome 
promises when he smelt his burnt offering? And here 
again so soon we find him with his love all concentrated 
on just one and this is Abram, all the rest of Noah's 
descendants are left out in the cold. And what might 
tend to still further elate Abram, see Gen. xii. 6-7. 
" And Abram passed through the land unto the place 
of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite 
was then in the land. And the Lord appeared unto 
Abram and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: 
and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who 
appeared unto him." 

We will briefly sketch the career of this first and 
wonderful patriarch to whom this wonderful promise of 
a Redeemer is made, and see as the saying goes if it 
will hold water. 



104 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

In verse ten of this same chapter 'tis recorded, " And 
there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down 
into Egypt to sojourn there; " a matter of about two 
hundred miles to get clear of this famine. He on 
approaching the coast of Egypt instructs his wife to 
introduce herself as his sister on account of her beauty, 
he reasons that this would endanger his life were she 
to be known as his wife. Well true enough her beauty 
creates a furore, and she is made an addition to Pha- 
raoh's harem. Abram is entreated well for having such 
a sweet sister, and is made handsome presents, consist- 
ing of sheep, oxen and asses, men-servants and maid- 
servants ; but God plagues Pharaoh and his house with 
great plagues for this behavior. 

Pharaoh calls up Abram, administers a severe repri- 
mand for this falsehood and deception, serves a writ of 
ejectment, and commands his men concerning Abram 
and his wife and all that he has. 

Just note the difference here between Abram this 
righteous and renowned patriarch and Pharaoh the com- 
mon sinner. 

CHAPTER IX 

Well Abram gathers up his stuff, which makes him 
" very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold, and gets him- 
self and all of his effects back into the land of Canaan. 
It does not seem in this case, as well as many other cases 
recorded in the Book to be but a small task to pass from 
Canaan to Egypt. Abram is almost immediately back 
into the land of Canaan and is having some conten- 
tion with his nephew Lot, or at least their herdsmen 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 105 

are, owing to their being crowded in consequence of 
their having so much cattle. Well this difficulty was 
amicably settled Abram gives Lot his choice of territory 
be it either to the right or left, Abram would take the 
opposite direction or side. See Gen. xiii. 1% " Abram 
dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities 
of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom." I 
speak of Lot because he figures in an important matter 
as you will see a little later. After this separation 
from Lot, God again communes with Abram. See Gen. 
xiii. 14, " And the Lord said unto Abram, after that 
Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, 
and look from the place where thou art northward, and 
southward, and eastward, and westward. For all the 
land which thou seest to thee will I give it, and to 
thy seed for ever. And I will make thy seed as the dust 
of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of 
the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered." 

Then God tells Abram to walk the length and breadth 
of this land, that he may realize its immensity. 

Now were not these extravagant promises? Abram's 
seed are to occupy this vast domain forever, and 
numerically they were to equal the dust of the earth. 

This territory that God promises, you will find, if 
you look it up on the map and make a computation 
from the scale of English miles, not to exceed fifty miles 
in breadth and to be about two hundred miles in length : 
About one fifth the area of New York State. Was not 
this a broad-minded God? 

Here you see is foreshadowed those awful times re- 
corded in Joshua. 

We will now turn to the next chapter Gen. xiv. In 



106 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

this chapter is proof unmistakable that this portion 
of the Bible is fiction and anonymous and is without 
authority. This chapter contains an account of battles 
as the heading says of four kings against five. This 
is nothing to the case only as it relates to the capture 
and abduction of Lot, Abram's nephew, recorded in 
verses 12-14, " And they took Lot, Abram's brother's 
son, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed. 
And there came one that had escaped and told Abram 
the Hebrew; for he dwelt in the plain of Mamre the 
Amorite, brother of Eschel, and brother of Aner: And 
these were confederate with Abram. And when Abram 
heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed 
his trained servants, born in his own house, three hun- 
dred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan' 9 

Now observe carefully, Abram the Hebrew pursued 
them unto Dan. In this sentence, " Abram the Hebrew 
pursued them unto Dan," are two proofs positive that 
this Pentateuch is a fabrication pure and simple. Abram 
as is represented in this history is the patriarch from 
whom the Hebrews sprung, and the word Hebrew had 
not been coined as there was nothing to apply the name 
to at this time, and, " unto Dan." Now it should be 
remembered that the third and last of this line of 
patriarchs was Jacob whom God renamed Israel, he 
was more fruitful than his precedents, Abram and 
Isaac, and became the father of twelve sons, it is not 
necessary here to name them all, but the name of one 
was Dan, and this was the name of one of the tribes of 
Israel, named from Dan their father. Now turn to 
Judges xviii. 27-29, " And they took the things which 
Micah, and the priest which he had, and came unto 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 107 

Laish, unto a people that were at quiet and secure: 
and they smote them with the edge of the sword, and 
burnt the city with fire. And there was no deliverer, 
because it was far from Zidon, and they had no busi- 
ness with any man; and it was in the valley that lieth by 
Beth-rehob. And they built a city and dwelt therein. 
And they called the name of the city Dan, after the 
name of Dan their father: howbeit the name of the 
city was Laish at the first." 

Biblical Chronology shows that the city of Dan had 
no existence until five hundred and seven years after 
this story is told, " how Abram pursued them unto 
Dan." How is this for an inerrant Bible? Still we 
will continue touching upon the salient points of 
Abram's history. In Gen. xv, Abram bewails the fact 
that his only heir is one by a concubine. God promises 
him a son by his wife Sarai, and that his seed shall 
outnumber the stars of heaven. In verse thirteen is 
foreshadowed Israel's bondage in Egypt for four hun- 
dred years. 

Gen. xvi., is interesting reading, but as it is not 
strictly pertinent to the case in point we will pass it 
by ; it contains the strange account of Abram and Sarai 
his wife ; their treatment of poor Hagar, Abram's con- 
cubine, after gestation. Is it any wonder according to 
the laws that govern during this period, that Ishmael 
should be what God predicted? 

Gen. xvii., brings this patriarch to his ninety-ninth 
year. God again renews his promise with augmenta- 
tion. He is to be the father of many nations : his name 
is changed for some wise reason not understood by 
mortals, to Abraham. God promises to make him ex- 



108 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

ceedingly fruitful, " that nations and kings shall come 
out of him." Verse seven, " And I will establish my 
covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee 
in their generations, for our everlasting covenant, to 
be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee" 

Now after God has made all of these extravagant 
promises, he then makes known the conditions upon 
which they are to be fulfilled. See verse ten, " This 
is my covenant which ye shall keep, between me and 
you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among 
you shall be circumcised." 11 — " And ye shall circum- 
cise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token 
of the covenant betwixt me and you." 12 — " And he 
that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, 
every man child in your generations; he that is born 
in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, 
which is not of thy seed." 14 — " And the uncircum- 
cised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not cir- 
cumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he 
hath broken my covenant." 

How does this appeal to your mentality for God- 
liness? To what class of gods does this God belong, 
think you? Is this the God of law and order that 
created and is still governing the universe? The God 
by whose will the planets move in their respective orbits, 
and whose will is law concerning things celestial and 
things terrestrial whose all pervading power governs the 
mote as well as the star of greatest magnitude? Is this 
the God who rules the whole realm of space and whose 
tenure is eternity? And yet, here would condescend 
to instruct Abraham and his seed forever, and make it 
binding upon them if they expect him to be their God, 






PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 109 

that they must mutilate themselves in this most dis- 
gusting manner, not only themselves, but their slaves 
that they may buy with money. 

Talk of blasphemy! I do not know in what way I 
could blaspheme, or slander the Infinite, worse, than 
to say that I believed this diabolical, black, indamnable, 
stuff that has been accredited by ignorance and super- 
stition to the Almighty. These old traditions and relics 
of savagery are not so much to be wondered at, under- 
standing the world as we do to-day, the rise and prog- 
ress of the human race, and the ignorance in which 
the dark past is enshrouded; but here at this Twen- 
tieth Century to hear the educated minister proclaim 
from the pulpit that this Bible is the infallible and in- 
spired word of God leads one to think that mankind has 
not made such great strides in the march of civilization 
after all, especially as regards religion. 

That circumcision did not originate in this way or 
at this time, and that it was found to be practiced 
among certain tribes in the Western Hemisphere, which 
Israel's God made no pretentions of knowing anything 
about is manifest to those who may care to look this 
subject up. (See International Cyclopedia.) 

While I am an advocate of religious toleration, and 
freedom of thought as far as is consistent to law and 
order, and justice to all; but it does look to me at this 
age, that reason justifies legislative interference in re- 
gard to such a heathenish practice as " circumcision." 

But to our subject, Gen. xvii, God promises Abra- 
ham a son by his wife Sarah — as God decrees she shall 
be called hereafter. Abraham expostulates for Ish- 
mael. God makes fair promises for Ishmael and his 



110 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

descendants, but assures Abraham that Sarah shall 
bear him a son upon whom all these great promises 
are to be fulfilled. And God names him Isaac, and he 
(Isaac) is to make his debut at " this set time in the 
next year." And the holy ordinance of circumcision is 
performed upon Abraham and his whole household — 
the male portion. 

This brings us to Gen. xviii. And here we are brought 
up against a new proposition ; something not previously 
mentioned in the Scripture. 

Here it is : verses 1-2, " And the Lord appeared unto 
him (Abraham) in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in 
the tent door in the heat of the day; and he lifted up 
his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by 
him." 

Now these three men turn out to be " angels " and 
they are here in pursuance of God's business, in regard 
to the advent of Isaac, whom Sarah is to bear at the 
set time, as before mentioned, and also in regard to 
two cities of the plain, Sodom and Gomorrah, that God 
concludes to destroy, as a punishment for certain sins 
committed. Now as we cannot go into details too far, 
and as it is these angels in whom I am interested, we 
will confine ourselves to these. Now again in Gen. xix. 
1, it reads, " And there came two angels to Sodom at 
even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: And Lot see- 
ing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself 
with his face toward the ground." 

Now we will let Abraham rest for a time as I wish 
to speak of these angels. As I said at the outset that 
I expected to prove beyond the shadow of a reasonable 
doubt that this Pentateuch is fiction, which I think I 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 111 

have already come pretty near doing, but the proof 
is not all in yet by a long way. 

Now the question of these angels falls under the third 
proposition that I previously named: That the exist- 
ence of excarnate intelligences are proven by the 
Scripture ; and herein is contained all that is of any real 
value in the Book: And this I wish to be understood, 
when coupled with present day knowledge is of great 
importance. Now in this chapter before mentioned 
(Gen. xviii.) where these angels appeared unto Abra- 
ham as he sat in his tent door; you will observe when 
their business is made known, and they are talking to 
this venerable patriarch about the heir that Sarah 
is to give birth to, Sarah, overhearing the conver- 
sation did some laughing behind the door. See verse 
eighteen, " And the Lord said unto Abraham, where- 
fore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear 
a child, which am old? " Also fourteen, " Is anything 
too hard for the Lord ? " Again, in regard to the two 
angels that appeared unto Lot at the gate of Sodom, 
you will observe that Lot addresses as Lord in his con- 
versation with them in regard to his making his escape. 
This is a significant fact that pervades the Old Testa- 
ment Scripture throughout, that wherever excarnate 
entities are mentioned the words Angel and God and 
Lord, are made interchangeable and synonymous. As 
corroborative evidence to this proposition, I was in con- 
versation a short time since with a Methodist minister, 
and spoke of the account where Jacob wrestled with 
God, " and saw him face to face." The minister 
replied "that this was not God but an angel." Well 
reader, if this was an angel, the Bible God question 



112 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

is settled; for this is the only God that figures in this 
Holy Book, as is perfectly apparent to the intelligent 
investigator; and that Israel's God is introduced with 
a capital letter and is often expressed! in capitals 
throughout, while the other tribal gods are always in- 
troduced with a little " g " is only a matter of taste 
with the translators and has no significance whatever. 

The rational conclusion, then, is this : That this nar- 
rator, whoever he may have been, has at least heard of 
decarnate intelligences, and has concluded to weave them 
into his literary effort, just as weavers of fiction do at 
the present day. The all important question is: Who 
are these angels spoken of in Holy Writ? We will 
keep this question in mind, as we move forward, be- 
cause reader if an angel or decarnate intelligence ever 
communicated with mortals in the period of Bible mak- 
ing they still do, and if they do communicate with 
mortals now, we have no reason to doubt but they did 
then; here is involved all that is of intrinsic worth in 
the Bible: because I expect to prove from this Book 
that there was communication between the world of 
mortals and the world of spirits in those ancient days. 
This I own would hardly be possible from the Book 
itself were it not for modern revelation. 

The description of the destruction of Sodom and 
Gomorrah, with this halo of miracle and God's terrible 
wrath is perhaps founded upon a fact ; that there was 
a seismic disturbance and two primitive cities and their 
inhabitants were destroyed. This was as likely to have 
happened then as now and perhaps more so according 
to geology. Such things in man's primitive day were 
looked upon as expressions of God's wrath for dis- 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 113 

obedience, or sins committed. Our world has just had 
a visitation of this kind in Southern Italy and Sicily 
Island, where two cities, Regia and Messina, have be- 
come cemeteries of their own inhabitants : 150,000 souls 
'tis estimated have met the same fate as did those of 
Sodom and Gomorrah. But there is no such atmos- 
phere of superstition surrounding such sad disasters 
now as then, in those ancient days, unless mayhap now 
and then some purblind religious zealot may still de- 
clare that this is an expression of God's wrath for these 
people's sins. A few words in regard to the sad fate 
of Lot's wife; this has been made the text of many a 
dismal, horrifying sermon, typifying the terrible sin 
of taking a stand for Christ and then looking back, or 
" returning again to the world." There are many peo- 
ple to-day if asked, Do you believe the Bible the infalli- 
ble word of God? their answer will be, "Most cer- 
tainly I do " ; with a look of surprise for presuming 
such a question! Then I may ask them, Do you be- 
lieve this story of Lot's wife, or of Jonah and the 
whale, or the Hebrew children in the fiery furnace, or 
Joshua staying the sun? Then they will want to turn 
the conversation. They are ready to swallow the whole 
Book at one dose, but divide it into small pills and it 
creates nausea at once. 

Here is an "Axiom." If this Bible is a revelation 
from God, it must be true in every part and parcel, 
both the Old Testament and the New. This has been 
and must be the position of the theologian ; because the 
most absurd thing that could be presented to human 
intelligence, would be a revelation from God mixed up 
with falsehood. In this case how would we determine 



114 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

the truth from the error? We are under obligations 
to believe every word, and that God's wisdom illumi- 
nates every miracle and every other part as well, of 
this Book, or it falls of its own weight into the realm 
of legend, myth and fable; and like any other ancient 
literature is valuable only as it corroborates present 
day knowledge. 

Now, what would be a rational conclusion in regard 
to this story of Lot's wife? Did Lot and his daugh- 
ters outdistance her in the race for life, and did the 
sulphurous atmosphere asphyxiate her and she become 
encrusted with scoria from this volcanic eruption, and 
thus mummified in this way was pronounced a " pillar 
of salt"? This does not look altogether irrational but 
we have no authority for it ; it is simply presumption. 
But that God should inflict so great punishment for 
so small an offense as looking back upon the destruc- 
tion of the other members of her household and her 
home, and all that was near and dear, is another of 
the mysteries of Godliness, and upon my part is not 
pleasant to believe. Nor do I. The conduct of right- 
eous Lot and his two daughters, which concludes this 
nineteenth chapter, is too obscene to discant upon. 
But I must call your attention to the last two verses. 
Here we get the origin of two tribes which it is God's 
will and pleasure to have exterminated by Abraham's 
seed, as we shall see by and by. 

Was this what God in his all-wisdom carefully pre- 
served Lot and his daughters for? See verses 37, 38: 
" And the first-born bear a son, and called him Moab: 
the same is the father of the Moabitcs unto this day." 
" And the younger, she also bear a son, and called his 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 115 

name Ben-ammi: the same is the father of the children 
of Amman (or Ammonites) unto this day," 

Bear in mind, that Lot is the father of these two 
sons. 

I would here call the attention of the reader to this 
expression, " unto this day." This phrase interlards 
the Pentateuch throughout, and is made use of after 
Moses is relieved by death of his responsibility with 
" Israel." See Deut. xxxiv. 6: " But no man Jcnoweth 
of his (Moses') sepulchre unto this day" Here is 
proof conclusive that Moses is innocent of this charge : 
of being author of this Pentateuch. And there is yet 
more proof to follow. 



CHAPTER X 

We will now turn our attention for a little time to 
Abraham again. Is it not passing strange that, after 
the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, that Abra- 
ham should betake himself to wandering again with 
his wife during her period of gestation, and should 
play the same old dodge again of calling her his sis- 
ter ; when she was past ninety years of age ; and Abim- 
elech, King of Gerar, should become so enamored of her 
that he should make her an addition to his harem and 
get himself into worse trouble yet than did Pharaoh 
by again incurring God's displeasure? But God acts 
quite humanly; he comes to Abimelech in a dream this 
time and says, " Behold, thou art but a dead man, for 
the woman which thou hast t alien; for she is a man 9 s 
wife." You should read this (Gen. xx.) chapter care- 



116 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

fully, for it is one upon which much attaches: you 
can draw a comparison between this godly Patriarch 
and this King of Gerar, the sinner. When God informs 
him of his mistake, he makes due apology, declaring 
the integrity of his heart and the innocence of his 
hands; and that Abraham and his wife had both told 
him she was his sister: and God comes to the rescue, 
and Abimelech is saved from committing sin. The 
point is right here (verse 9) : " Then Abimelech called 
Abraham and said unto him, What hast thou done 
unto us? and what have I offended thee, that thou hast 
brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? Thou 
hast done deeds unto me that ought not to be done" 
Abraham makes reply, "That he thought the fear of 
God was not in this place and they would slay him 
for his wife's sake." Then, to make an apology for 
the deception, owns up that Sarah is his half-sister, 
that she is the daughter of his father but not the 
daughter of his mother. 

Then Abimelech repeats the behavior of Pharaoh 
by making presents of oxen, and sheep, and men- 
servants and women-servants, and restored him Sarah 
his wife, and he tells her that he has given Abraham 
a thousand pieces of silver. See 17, 18: " So Abra- 
ham prayed unto God: and God healed Abimelech and 
his wife and his maidservants, and they bare children. 
For the Lord had fast closed up all the wombs of the 
house of Abimelech, because of Sarah, Abraham's 
wife." 

How can anybody possessed of common sense and 
intelligence teach or preach that stuff like this is a 
revelation from God? 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 117 

Now, to prevent this book from assuming weari- 
some proportions, we must not be too minute in our 
review. 

Does it not look strange indeed to the Bible student 
that, after the death of Sarah and <*od's promise was 
fulfilled in giving him a son upon whom all was to de- 
scend that had been foreshadowed, that Abraham 
should prostitute himself at his time of life with con- 
cubines, as is recorded in Gen. xxv.? 

We must now, of necessity, let Abraham rest with 
his fathers. 

We now come to the second Patriarch, Isaac; we 
cannot take up very much time with this Patriarch, 
as there is nothing particularly relevant to the case in 
point in regard to his career. We will name a thing 
or two. It is a mighty strange coincidence that, when 
there is another famine, Isaac should make his exit 
with his wife down into Abimelech's kingdom, just as 
Abraham did, with the same old story that his wife is 
his sister. 

But Abimelech has grown wise by experience with 
this style of emigrant, and arranges conditions so he 
can keep an eye on Isaac from a rear window, and dis- 
covers him sporting with this sister, or wife — so says 
the Scripture. Abimelech calls him up, tells him what 
he has seen, and what a calamity was wrought in his 
household by his father's falsehoods, and if it had not 
been for his vigilance there would have been the same 
disaster repeated. 

Then follows the same result — wonderful prosperity 
to Isaac as a reward for lying. 

Now I would call your attention to these three char- 



118 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

acters, Abraham, Isaac, and Abimelech, for the pur- 
pose of seeing which of the three possess the qualities 
that stand for truest manhood. Abimelech, you will 
observe, in his conversation with God and with these 
two acquitted himself very honorably, and seems to 
have to some degree a sense of morality: while this 
quality seems to be sadly wanting in the other two. 
Abimelech, we must remember, is King of the Philis- 
tines, and as we will see later on the account of the 
horrible wars that were waged by Israel to extermi- 
nate them, I here wish to call your attention to Gen. 
xxvi. 26 to 31, that you may see how peaceably in- 
clined Abimelech was, and the effort he made for a 
treaty of peace which would be enduring between 
Isaac's household and his kingdom. I will ask you to 
read this Scripture carefully, as it sheds light upon 
the subject. 

I do not wish to be understood that I entertain a 
thought that this happened in fact; it is the taste of 
the narrator and his conceptions of God and the kind 
of God he has created for us that I would call your 
attention to, and the advisability of making him the 
object of dismal worship is the question (?). 

Now we will turn our attention for a brief space to 
the next personage to whom this patriarchal legacy 
descends (the covenant). It is a patent fact that 
every one of these Patriarchs are " crooks " ; why the 
narrator should have considered this wise, baffles good 
judgment; but thus it is, and Jacob, the third and 
last, outdoes them all. He extorts from his elder 
brother Esau — the rightful heir — his birthright by 
apprehending him and taking advantage of his for- 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 119 

lorn condition when he was starving- on the wild: the 
consideration he receives for said birthright is a mess 
of pottage. The next subterfuge we find this embryo 
patriarch engaged in is laying low to beat Esau out of 
his father's blessing. See Gen. xxviii. This scheme is 
perpetrated through the wiles of his mother, Rebekah, 
and with the aid of the kid-skin wrapped around his 
wrists and neck is a howling success ; but for all, the 
old father seems to have apprehensions that there is 
something going wrong, and asks (verse 24), " Art 
thou my very son Esau? " Jacob makes answer, " And 
he said I am." So the old blind father grants his 
blessing on the wrong son, or, at least, not the one he 
meant it for. Jacob had scarcely gone from the pres- 
ence of his father, when Esau comes in with the gen- 
uine article (the cooked venison) and speaks affec- 
tionately to the old father with great expectation. 
Consternation and great trepidation now take posses- 
sion of Isaac, when a full realization of the facts takes 
the place of apprehension. But Jacob, the third and 
last Patriarch, has purloined the blessing and is now 
in possession of both these coveted bestowments. When 
I was a boy and first heard this story, it was a great 
wonder to me why, when Isaac discovered this fraud, 
that he could not recall this blessing and bestow it 
where he would ; and this wonder would still remain, 
were it not for the fact that the whole thing resolves 
itself into myth when illuminated by the torch of rea- 
son. I mention these incidents in Jacob's life that we 
may consider the character of these Patriarchs and the 
nature of this God that has chosen them. 

Well, a combination of circumstances which are not 



120 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

essential to this our work, had now reached a point 
which makes it necessary for Jacob to take leave of 
the paternal roof and seek shelter elsewhere. He takes 
his departure from Beer-sheba and goes toward Haran, 
and when night overtakes him he takes the stones for 
his pillow and lays him down to sleep. And he dreams 
a ladder is set up which reaches from earth to heaven 
(Gen. xxviii. 12), and the angels of God are ascend- 
ing and descending upon it. And God stood above 
this ladder and here renews the promise made to Abra- 
ham and Isaac. Jacob in the morning pours oil on 
this stone pillow, and declares that if " God will be with 
him and give him bread to eat and raiment to put 
on, that he will give a tenth of all his substance to 
God." Does this look like a revelation from the Om- 
nipotent? or does it smack of a man-made god upon 
which to establish a priesthood that may fatten upon 
the labor of ignorance? What need has Almighty God 
of a tenth of what mankind may produce while here 
on earth, when the earth and the fullness thereof is 
his? I would ask. Think of these things when you 
have time. 

Jacob here again recalls to mind the existence of 
angels, which he saw upon this ladder, but this was 
only a dream. But in Gen. xxxii. 24 to 29 he wrestles 
with a bona fide angel the whole latter part of a night, 
when Jacob declares he has seen God face to face. This 
is where Jacob's name is changed to Israel. The his- 
tory of Jacob from here on to the close of his life is 
interesting, but we must forbear, as it is not perti- 
nent to the case in point: The case in point is to 
prove that the Pentateuch is fiction and has no more 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON l&l 

foundation of fact than has " Sinbad the Sailor." Nor 
does it teach as good a moral. 

Now we will turn to Gen. xxxvi. 31 to 43, which 
contains proof conclusive that the Pentateuch is anony- 
mous and wholly without authority, and was not writ- 
ten until after the reign of Saul, the first KSng of 
Israel. 

Beginning at verse 31, it reads: t( And these are 
the kings that reigned in the land of Edom before there 
reigned any Icing over the children of Israel," 

Now, this verse and on to the end of the chapter or 
forty-third verse, is copied from the first chapter of 
the first book of Chronicles, beginning at the forty- 
third verse. Now give attention to the chapter that 
precedes this thirty-sixth, or the thirty-fifth, at the 
beginning of this chapter, which reads : " And God 
said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell 
there: and make there an altar unto God, that ap- 
peared unto thee when thou fledest from the face of 
Esau thy brother." " Then Jacob said unto his house- 
hold, and to all that were with him, Put away the 
strange gods that are among you, and be ye clean, and 
change your garments." What a fascination they 
seemed to have for strange gods, and how little faith 
they seemed to have in their own, who was doing all 
these wonders? I call your attention to this last quo- 
tation that you may see about the time of life that 
this is with Jacob. In this chapter God changes his 
name to Israel. The angel that wrestled with Jacob 
in a chapter just preceding told him his name was to 
be Israel, but God does not seem to know this, for he 
addresses him as Jacob at the beginning of this chap- 



m PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

ter. This is before all of Jacob's twelve sons are born. 
It is near the time that Rachel gave birth to Benja- 
min, and Rachel died in travail, " and Jacob set up a 
pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of RacheVs 
grave unto this dap" (see verse 20). It was before 
Isaac's death, for this is recorded in the last verse of 
this chapter. 

Then the chapter following the thirty-sixth chap- 
ter commences with, " And Jacob dwelt in the land 
wherein his father was a stranger, in the land of Ca- 
naan. These are the generations of Jacob, Joseph 
was seventeen years old" Now, if this Pentateuch 
was written by Moses, it is evident that this account 
(" And these are the kings that reigned in the land of 
Edom, before there reigned any Icing over the children 
of Israel ") could not possibly have a place in Genesis. 
If it is Moses writing this, what did he know about a 
king reigning over Israel? Israel never had a king in 
Moses' time, nor was a king thought of, because Is- 
rael's God, according to all that he gave to Moses 
and Aaron to speak to the children of Israel, was that 
he (God himself) was going to be their God, King, 
Dictator, Legislator, and was going to attend to all 
the affairs of state; for he was too jealous to have 
Israel entertain a thought of a king usurping his au- 
thority during the whole of Moses' career — their exo- 
dus from Egypt, and their forty years' wandering in 
the wilderness, while God was feeding them on quails 
and manna. 

Now, the first king that reigned over Israel was 
Saul. Saul's reign begins, according to Biblical chro- 
nology, 620 years after this time referred to in Gen- 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 123 

esis, " about a king reigning over Israel." So it is 
internally evident that this book of Genesis was not 
written until after Saul's reign, and from the expres- 
sion in the text, " Before there reigned any king," 
shows that the crown had descended indefinitely, and 
that Genesis and the rest of the Pentateuch was prob- 
ably not written until after the Jewish " captivity," 
or after Josiah's reign, who was the last king that 
reigned over the Jews, " or Israel." 

It is certain from this data (and there is more to 
follow) : 

First — That Abram pursued Lot's abductors unto 
" Dan." 

Second — "That these are the kings that reigned in 
the land of Edom, before there reigned any king over 
the children of Israel;" that Moses is exonerated from 
having anything to do with the writing of this part of 
the Bible, and that the Pentateuch is a myth and 
Moses a figment. 

The greatest difficulty that confronts me is that 
there is such a vast accumulation of error spanning 
so many centuries that it is with perplexity that I 
decide just where to direct my efforts that my work 
may be most effectual, and keep my book from assum- 
ing too great proportions. 

So all of the history that brings about what was 
foreshadowed by God to Abram, that his seed were to 
be in bondage 400 years before they were to reach this 
happy land of Canaan, and were to become such a 
mighty nation, we will not take up the time with: the 
touchingly beautiful story of Joseph, and his eleven 



124 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

brothers' conspiracy, which contributes to bring about 
circumstances which culminate in the fulfillment of 
God's prediction — this bondage — is truly wonderful, 
and shows that the narrator, had he lived in modern 
times, would have given the stars of modern fiction 
a worried look ; but this history we must also pass by. 

We will now move ahead until we come down to the 
first chapter of Exodus. 

If Israel's God is really the true and only God, and 
the Bible is a revelation from him, then is it not our 
bounden duty to study this revelation that we may 
become acquainted with the character of God, and that 
we may make our lives conform to his will and wishes? 

Can there be anything objectionable to this propo- 
sition? Could the orthodox churchman of any creed 
object to this? If not, we will proceed with our ex- 
amination. 

Ex. i. 'Tis here stated that there were seventy souls 
went down to Egypt. God more than fulfilled his pre- 
diction, for 'tis said they were in bondage 430 years, 
" That they were fruitful and increased abundantly, 
and multiplied and waxed exceeding mighty and the 
land was filled with them. Another Pharaoh ascends 
to the throne, who takes in the situation that Israel 
has become mightier than themselves. Now, if this 
were true and God is presiding over the whole affair, 
does it not look strange that they (God's chosen) 
should be obliged to submit to all of the afflictions 
that Pharaoh might concoct to reduce them and keep 
them under subjection? 'Tis said the more they were 
afflicted the more they multiplied. But let us see if 
this be true. Ex. i. 14 says : " And they made their 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 125 

lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar and in brick* 
and in all manner of service in the field: all their serv- 
ice, wherein they made them serve, was with rigor." 
Pharaoh instructs the midwives to kill all the male in- 
fants. Here God seems to interpose by mental impres- 
sion, and the midwives plead an excuse " that the He- 
brew women are too lively and are delivered before they 
can get to their posts of duty." This pleases God 
because the midwives have lied, and he (God) makes 
them houses. 

Would this not look wonderful in our day, to see 
God building houses for somebody because they had 
lied? But when Pharaoh discovers this plan does not 
work, he charges all his people to throw all the male 
infants into the river, but to save all the daughters 
alive. God seems to be checkmated here and Pha- 
raoh wins. How long this may have been practiced 
no tongue can tell ; but it must have been a long, long 
time. It would have been at least from the time that 
little Moses was set afloat in his basket of bulrushes 
to the time of his full manhood, and how long before, 
none ever may know. Just picture to yourselves the 
number of dead infant bodies that must have been 
stranded and floating about on this beautiful river 
Nile. Now there is not one word to show that this law 
was repealed, or that this wholesale destruction of in- 
fants was in any way abolished or interfered with up 
to the time that the exodus of the Israelites took place. 
There is no account of any but one exception, and 
that is Moses. If you place credulity sufficiently above 
intelligence to make yourself believe! — Moses the au- 
thor of the Pentateuch! 



126 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

See Ex. ii. 1. A man of the house of Levi takes to 
wife a daughter of the house of Levi. Verse 2: She 
bares a son and hides him three months. 

Moses now commences holding forth. Verse 3: She 
sets him afloat in a basket of bulrushes. 

Verse 5: Pharaoh's daughter finds him, and with 
the nature of true womanhood has compassion on him 
and sends for a nurse. 

Verse 11: He is a man grown. Verse 12: He sees 
an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew. He looks this way 
and that, and kills the Egyptian. Verse 13: He is 
accused of this when he thought the secret was his 
own. Verse 15: Pharaoh seeks to slay Moses. Moses 
flees to the land of Midian. Verse 16: Lands in the 
house of a priest of Midian who has seven daughters. 
These daughters have charge of their father's 
flocks. 

Verse 17 : The shepherds come and drive them away 
from the watering place. Moses gives these shepherds 
to understand that he is there, and sees to it that their 
flocks are watered. 

Verse 20: The father wants to know why they did 
not invite him to dinner. Verse 21 : There must one 
or more of the girls run and call him to dinner, for 
Moses likes the place and marries one of this priest's 
daughters. 

Verse 22 : Moses' first son is born. 

Now in this chapter we have traced this much 
preached of Moses through these rapidly changing 
vicissitudes from his birth to the time he becomes a 
father. Please look this Scriptural account over and 
see if you discover anything that looks as though he 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 127 

were preparing or has any thought of preparing manu- 
script out of which to create our " family Bible." Then 
we will see if throughout his career we can detect any- 
thing upon which to base a belief that he is the author 
of this Pentateuch. 

In verse 23, it reads : " And it came to pass in 
process of time, that the King of Egypt died: and the 
children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and 
their cry came up to God by reason of the bondage. 
Then God remembers his covenant and has respect now 
unto them." 

CHAPTER XI 

This brings us to Ex. iii. 1, which reads: "Now 
Moses kept the flocks of Jethro, his father-in-law." 
Now, in the preceding chapter, 'tis stated that his 
father-in-law's name is " Reuel." Has he divorced his 
first wife and married again, or how is this to be ac- 
counted for? 

But we must not spend the time higgling over little 
things. " Moses led the flock to the backside of the 
desert and came to the mountain of God (Horeb). And 
the Angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame 
of fire out of the midst of a bush, and he looked and 
behold the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not 
consumed" And Moses said, "7 will now turn aside, 
and see this great sight why the bush is not burnt." 
We must tarry here for a little time and analyze this 
Scripture with studious care. Here are several things 
I wish you to place upon the tablet of your memory 
for future use. Observe, " The Angel of the Lord ap- 



128 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

geared to Moses in a flame of fire" Now what did 
Moses do? He turned aside to see this great sight 
why the bush is not burnt! 

Moses here differed from the average Christian of 
the present day in several respects. In the first place 
the Christian of to-day, upon seeing this phenomenon, 
would say, " I want nothing of you or your burning 
bush, because I know this is of the Devil, and I want 
nothing of this in any way, shape or manner: I have 
my Bible and my Bible is good enough for me." I 
have heard this remark many times, as no doubt you 
all have. Now, suppose Moses had received this phe- 
nomenon in the same way, and said, " I want none of 
your hellish necromancy around me, and I will just 
get my flock and myself away from here, because I am 
satisfied that you are the same old Devil that got him- 
self in the guise of a snake and fooled father Adam 
and mother Eve, and now you have gotten yourself in 
this shape to do a lot more mischief." Had Moses 
have taken this view of things, it seems as if God's 
plan would have been badly shaken. I apprehend what 
the answer of some will be to this ; but we will let this 
pass. 

Mark what is said in verse 4, Ex. iii. : " And when 
the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called 
unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, 
Moses. And Moses said, Here am I." 

He then, whoever it was, told Moses not to get too 
close up, but to take his shoes from off his feet ; for it 
seems this would make conditions better for some rea- 
son (?). Then he said to Moses, "7 am the God of 
thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 129 

and the God of Jacob." Well, Moses did what almost 
any man would have done under the circumstances. He 
hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. 

Now while we are fresh against this Scripture, I 
wish to make a few observations: (1) Moses is here 
ahead of the average Christian in his behavior by thou- 
sands of years; (2) who is it talking from this bush? 
First he is called an angel, the second time he is spoken 
of he is called Lord, the third time he is called God. 
Then, after giving some preliminary instructions, he 
then introduces himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, 
and Jacob ; and then proceeds with his communication. 
Now the communication, what it consisted of, is not 
material to the case in point. Who it is, is of the ut- 
most importance, because we are not left in doubt, in 
whatever light we may regard this Pentateuch, but this 
is the same God that has been doing business ever since 
the Bible started, and is laying plans to continue in 
business for a long time to come. Then, who is it? 
This is the question upon which, I maintain, the Chris- 
tian world has gone wrong, and has blocked and ob- 
structed the wheels of progress — to say nothing about 
the loss of life and the suffering that has been caused — 
for thousands of years. The poor wandering Jew has 
deceived himself upon this God question, and the Chris- 
tian world has been deceived by the Jew in turn, and 
the fraud and deception sweeps on. 

The worst feature in this wave-wide error is the ele- 
ment of hypocrisy. Were this eliminated from the 
Christian religion among those who in the past and 
who still occupy high places and have fattened upon 
the credulity of ignorance, how quick would this error 



130 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

tumble to the level of Paganism or any other old ism 
that has had its day? 

But to get back to the question: Who is this com- 
municating with Moses? Now, my dear friends, I must 
fall back to a position that I occupied a while ago, 
where I spoke of angels and fiction. That this is my 
ground now, that this narrator had a vague idea of 
excarnate communication, whether any experience or 
not we cannot say, but think not, for had he have 
had a better knowledge of the supernal world, he would 
never have hatched up such an unreasonable story, 
where the earmarks of fraud are apparent in every 
column, as is this Pentateuch. He apparently had 
about the same knowledge as many weavers of fiction 
have at the present day, where they conclude to make 
a ghost figure in their plot. And this is how the 
Christian world has gone wrong; they have mistaken 
these communications, and accredited them to the In- 
finite God. This mistake, coupled with the fraud and 
hypocrisy by a designing priesthood, has brought this 
blight upon the world. 

Right here is embodied one of the most important 
lessons contained in my work, which I hope you will 
bear in mind. I cannot follow this subject farther 
now; it leads into Part II. of this work, where I 
shall hope to make myself better understood. 

This Angel discants upon these promises previously 
made to the Patriarchs, how he is going to lead them 
to a good large land flowing with milk and honey. See 
verse 13. Moses wants to know, when he conveys this 
news to his people and they ask him what this God's 
name is, what he shall tell them. Here the Angel 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 131 

seems to be confused in regard to his own name, and 
tells Moses, "I am that I Am." That he can tell 
them that he is I AM, and that he has sent Moses 
to them. 

It is profoundly impressive to follow this Angel's 
communication, from verse 15, Ex. iii., to the end of 
this chapter, and consider what a code of morals would 
be built up from precepts drawn from his teachings. 
I will here at this time give one example. When this 
tutelar is going to lead them out of Egypt : " And it 
shall come to pass, that, when ye go, ye shall not go 
empty: but every woman shall borrow of her neighbor, 
and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of sil- 
ver and jewels of gold, and raiment: and ye shall put 
them upon your sons and upon your daughters, and ye 
shall spoil the Egyptians." 

If this is God Almighty saying all this, and this is 
but a priming to what is said! What do you think 
of it? Do you not see what a terrible inconsistency 
it is? Is there pleasure in believing it? Now, sup- 
pose it to be an Angel; it relieves it of much of its 
inconsistency, still it remains intolerably unreasonable 
and inconsistent! Because it could not be a pleasant 
truth to believe that an Angel could be so depraved 
and still have power to do such mischief in the world. 

But when we reduce this Angel to a figment living 
only in the imagination of this narrator — who seems to 
have no sense of what belongs to morality or common 
decency, as we all know there are such in the world 
to-day — we then have the problem reduced to the plane 
of rationality. 

But let us not do this author too great injustice. 



132 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

Do we suppose when he wrote this drivel that he ever 
dreamed of what the outcome might be? My answer 
is: From the nature of the case, he could not have 
known: but this leads us into a sea of speculation. 

Let us get back to business. 

Now, God makes arrangements for this great exo- 
dus that is sure to take place. You should study this 
Pentateuch carefully, and the whole Scripture as well ; 
for when rightly understood, you will find it of great 
assistance in giving you a correct understanding of 
the things that lift us above the secular affairs of 
this world, and give to us a hope and comfort that 
this world cannot give — in its mad pursuits for wealth 
by some, and the question of bare existence by the 
great majority; and I feel justified in adding, also a 
comfort that the orthodox religions fail to give. Now 
this may look to many as though I had lost my cue, 
was wandering aimlessly, and was unsaying much that 
I have previously said: but stay, and I will try and 
explain. Many years ago, when I was a boy, I re- 
member a conversation between several men in regard 
to some other man that had lied about something. 
One of these men remarked, " That the best way to get 
the truth from this man was to take him contrary " ; 
that is, to reverse the order in which he told things; 
and in this way you could arrive at the truth pretty 
well. And this, reader, is the way this Bible must 
many times be interpreted, or it is terribly misleading. 

To illustrate, I will here give you but one example. 
See Ex. xxii. 18 : " Thou shalt not suffer a witch to 
Uve." 

Now this text, I claim, should be interpreted and 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 133 

understood thus: "Thou shalt make no discrimina- 
tion whatever against a witch." 

I will just mention here the useful lesson to be drawn 
from this Scriptural quotation. 'Tis this: It proves 
that Spiritualism, as understood to-day, is yet older 
than the Jewish priesthood, and as this priesthood 
thought this would be inimical to their prosperity and 
well-being, they would employ their God to stamp it 
out. And it is with regret that I own this same spirit 
exists to a certain extent " until this day." 

You should understand, a witch at that time and a 
spiritual medium are one and the same. 

I hope I shall not be, here, misunderstood, as I ex- 
pect to explain more fully in regard to this subject 
when I come up to it, but it probably falls into the 
second part of my work. 

I do not pretend to say this rule in regard to the 
Scripture holds without exception, but many times I 
hold 'tis true, as I shall expect to prove. 

We will now continue our examination of this great 
foundation stone to the Christian religion, " The Pen- 
tateuch." 

We will summarize briefly from Ex. iv., beginning 
with the first of the chapter. Moses did not feel him- 
self equal to the task of opposing Pharaoh's might, 
and leading these people back to this promised land, 
which is thickly settled by all of these alien tribes that 
are to be removed, and pleads inability, that he is not 
eloquent, and that he feels himself wholly incompetent : 
but God proceeds to inspire him with miracles. First, 
his rod is changed to a serpent; this serpent chases 
Moses around until he begins to think it serious busi- 



\U PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

ness. God tells him to seize it by the tail ; this Moses 
does, and the snake becomes the same old rod. This 
might look as though Moses would win out, at the first 
round, were it not for the fact that Pharaoh seems to 
have some magicians, ostensibly for his own amusement, 
who seem to work the same racket. But when this 
miracle is applied for the purpose intended, it seems 
that God's and Moses' snake comes out ahead, for he 
swallows all of the magicians' snakes; Moses catches 
it by the tail ; it becomes in statu quo. But what has 
become of the magicians' rods or snakes we are not 
advised. This would be a good question for the theo- 
logian. Well, God has given Moses several miracles 
from which Pharaoh is permitted to take his choice. 
But here is a most difficult problem: I think this one 
stands out as prominent as any one contained in the 
Book, one where blind faith has to assert itself en- 
tirely to the exclusion of reason, one where humanity 
has to yield absolutely to the most indamnable depths 
of depravity to which the mind of dissolute man can 
descend, to follow God in his plans to prove his power 
to Pharaoh and to Israel. God promises to harden 
Pharaoh's heart ; so this old mooted question of " free 
agency " is in this case entirely eliminated from Pha- 
raoh's part in this wholesale tragedy. Then God pro- 
ceeds to visit his plagues in rapid succession through- 
out all Egypt — sparing his chosen — sufficient to have 
utterly destroyed all life throughout the kingdom sev- 
eral times over, everything human, animal and vege- 
table. Observe, just before he comes down with his last 
visitation, when, according to the account, there could 
have been nothing left alive, — that of smiting all of 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 135 

Egypt's first-born; and he instructs Moses in regard 
to the commemoration of this event, the feast of the 
Passover, as a memorial of this Godly History. He 
then gives instructions to Moses for the women to 
borrow of the Egyptians, previous to this last expres- 
sion of his power, all of their jewelry, and their Sun- 
day clothes, with which to apparel and adorn them- 
selves, so that the poor Egyptians would not have a 
decent thing to wear to the funerals which were sure 
to take place immediately following. God promises to 
attune their minds so they will cheerfully hand them 
over. Again, Moses was preserved in infancy through 
the watchful care of this God, we are given to under- 
stand, in a basket of bulrushes, and by the compassion 
of Pharaoh's daughter, for the special purpose of lead- 
ing out this people; but the law to throw all of the 
male infants into the river has never been repealed, so 
this, according to the account, would have been the 
common fate of all the rest, so that all Israel, the 
male population, would have been reduced to a frazzle 
by this time and what remained would have been in 
their dotage at least. But here is Aaron. How did 
he escape? All Israel seems to be robust and well 
manned, and seems to have an abundance of domestic 
animals for sacrificial as well as for all other purposes, 
a priesthood well organized, and yet they are so op- 
pressed that they have to scour the bare fields of 
Egypt for stubble with which to make their full tale 
of brick. Where and how did they obtain food for 
all of these domestic animals? I would ask. We find 
them now well laden with the Egyptians' borrowed 
jewelry and clothing and are making their exodus from 



136 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

Egypt; but God concludes to give Pharaoh another 
belt, and still manipulates his heart without remorse 
and impels him to pursue Israel into the bed of the 
Red Sea, with his vast army, horses and chariots, 
where they are overwhelmed and destroyed. 

Is there pleasure, consolation, or joy in trying to 
believe stuff like this? In order to believe this, intel- 
ligence must be set aside, or give place to blind faith 
— and faith in what? We have no reason to judge 
from this story itself that it is God doing this, because 
he is announced at first as an angel, and be he angel 
or God, the orthodox Devil himself could not outdo 
him for treachery, wickedness, and inhumanity. 

The very best feature about this history is it inter- 
nally proves itself to be fallacious, and therefore the 
Almighty is exonerated from such diabolical behavior 
as this. 

I apprehend what the reply to this will be by ortho- 
doxy : " that this is all done away with under the new 
dispensation, that Jesus Christ is the light of the 
world, and it is him through whom we must be saved." 
We will see how this is. I have spoken of this casually, 
but when I come up to it I expect to treat this ques- 
tion with all fairness, that all may see the rationality 
of the Christian's hope and faith and what it rests 
upon. 

What interest should I or could I have in trying 
to pervert the truth? The churchman tells us that the 
ttruth is the all-important thing, and the thing to be 
diligently sought for: then, I would ask, if I can point 
out error in their Book which is unmistakable, should 
they not be willing to note and acknowledge it? And 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 137 

if truth should be found outside of their Book which 
redounds to man's welfare and happiness, what just 
reason can they give for turning their backs to it? 
Again, if there should be found truth in their Rook 
which they had failed to discover, why should they not 
be pleased and willing to have it discovered unto them, 
that they may give it to their hungry flocks? 

Therefore, let us happily pursue our investigations. 
We have now followed these children from Canaan to 
Egypt, through their 430 years' bondage, their exodus 
through the Red Sea, to where they now are, in the 
Wilderness, God supporting them on manna and quails. 
We will continue to follow them through their vicissi- 
tudes in this wilderness, but we must avoid going too 
much into details. We will try and hit upon such por- 
tions as are germane to our work. 

Now observe Ex. xvi. 35 : " And the children of 
Israel did eat manna forty years, until they came 
to a land inhabited: they did eat manna, until they 
came unto the borders of the land of Canaan" If 
Moses wrote this Pentateuch, why should he have writ- 
ten the conclusion of their history in this wilderness, 
when it first commenced: and since he never led them 
over the river, how did he know but that they sinned 
again when they were up to the banks of Jordan and 
were set back another forty years? Again, he says, 
until they came to a land inhabited; observe how this 
tallies with this forty years' history; their wars and 
conquests, and butcheries that were carried on, and the 
women that were ripped up being with child. Con- 
sider this wilderness ; it is not made clear whether it is 
woods or desert, but we are given to understand that 



138 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

it is entirely devoid of anything that supports animal 
life, so that God must miraculously feed them on quails 
and manna for forty years. We are reminded all this 
time, lest we might forget, that they have much cattle, 
sheep, goats, asses and all domestic animals known to 
the Orient: and while it rained manna and God made 
the wind to blow quails their way, and water had to 
be obtained through God's or Moses' miracles. But 
there is not one word about showers of straw for these 
cattle; how were they kept alive? I would ask. They 
must be kept in good condition or God would put up 
a kick when a burnt offering was made. Observe, 
again, Ex. xvii. 1-8. But take notice of the preced- 
ing verses of this chapter, as it is necessary to a clear 
understanding of the situation. They have journeyed 
from the Wilderness of Sin, *? according to the com- 
mandment of the Lord, and pitched in Rephidim: and 
there was no water for the people to drink." These 
children were in a state of insurrection, and Moses cried 
unto the Lord from very fear of being stoned. God 
tells him to take with him the elders of Israel and this 
historic and all-potent rod, and lead the people to a 
certain rock, and between God and Moses and the rod, 
the rock would be made to yield sufficient water for 
their needs. Verse 8 : " Then came Amalek and fought 
with Israel in Rephidim." 

Now, dear reader, where in the name of the three 
Gods in the Christians' Pantheon, did Amalek get his 
manna and water in this wilderness, which is totally 
destitute of food and drink? Yet here is Amalek in 
good fighting condition, as the history shows ; for 
when this rod of Moses and of God was not held high 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 139 

in the air from the top of the hill where Moses could 
command a view of the belligerents, then Amalek pre- 
vailed, and when he held it up good and high, Israel 
prevailed : so it was imperative upon Moses to hold this 
rod up high, which he did until his arm grew weak 
and heat drops gathered on his cheek; so they were 
obliged to build a stone pile, over which Moses could 
balance this rod, with Joshua and Hur on either side 
of Moses to keep him steady. Just picture this in 
your mind's eye, and consider how " great are the mys- 
teries of Godliness." 

Now we will have to pass lightly over a considerable 
portion of this Scripture, where Jethro, the priest of 
Midian, Moses' father-in-law, came to visit him, and 
bring his wife and two sons, who had tarried behind. 
But how they got through the Red Sea is not made 
plain. Jethro discovers that God is laying too much 
upon Moses and has to interpose an interference in 
regard to court proceedings to make it easier for 
Moses. 

We will now speak briefly about the wonderful and 
terrible manifestations of God on Mount Sinai, after 
they had departed Rephidim, and had pitched in the 
desert of Sinai. God instructs Moses how Israel must 
get themselves in readiness on the third day, for he 
(God) is going to make arrangements so that all the 
people can get a look at him. 

CHAPTER XII 

But God seems to have promised more than he after- 
ward concluded to fulfill; for immediately following 1 



140 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

(see Ex. xix. 11 to end of chapter) he says: "And 
thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, say- 
ing, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into 
the mount, or touch, the border of it: whosoever touch- 
eth the mount shall be surely put to death: There 
shall not a hand touch it, but he shall be surely stoned 
or shot through; whether it be beast or man it shall 
not live," 

Now, in modern phraseology this would be put in 
this way: That God did not show as he advertised, 
but, for all, he gave a first-class entertainment. His 
thunderings and lightnings, and his tremendous voice 
rendered more terrific with his big trumpet, so that the 
little children of Israel at the foot of the mountain 
trembled with very fear! 

And Moses brought those children close up to the 
dead-lin,e, and God with his smoke and fire and shak- 
ing the mountain and hooting longer and louder 
through his trumpet — and finally called Moses up to 
the top of the mount. Was not Moses a brave man? 
Moses goes up to the top of the mount. God sends 
him straightway back with the understanding that this 
is no boys' play and that they had better mind 
their eye or he may break loose and kill a few thou- 
sand. 

This is an underrated account of this show, as all 
may see if they will but take the time to read this 
Scripture (Ex. xix.). Is this a free-for-nothing show? 
I should say not exactly. God wants pretty good pay 
for his time and services, as you will see. After Moses 
came down to warn the "children," it seems he went 
back directly, although this is not specifically men- 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 141 

tioned, but what follows cannot leave us in doubt. He 
was up to the top of this mount forty days. Here God 
wrote and gave Moses the Ten Commandments on the 
tables of stone. Here God gave Moses his first course 
in law. Here we get the initiative of godly jurispru- 
dence. Here we get a faint conception of the emolu- 
ment God requires for his divine service. Here we get 
our first lesson in regard to what is to be done with 
God's most inveterate foe, " the Witch." Here we get 
a primary lesson in Redemption (Ex. xxii. 29, 30). 
This greatly mystified me at one time, and I took pains 
to look this passage up in the different commentaries 
that I could find on the Bible, to see what it meant 
where it says, " Thou shalt not delay to offer the first 
of thy ripe fruits, and of thy liquors: the first-born 
of thy sons shalt thou give unto me, the same with 
the oxen and sheep "; and as the sons were included in 
the same category, I could not make out but they were 
to be sacrificed to please this jealous God: and though 
God seems to delight in human slaughter, it may, how- 
ever, be averted in this case by redemption. The kill- 
ing of the son may be expiated by giving a lamb or 
an ox, as the case may be, in place thereof. So, you 
see, here is another initiative lesson on this Redemption 
question, which is the bulwark of the Christian religion 
of to-day. 

I will now invite your attention to a few things con- 
tained in Ex. xxiv. This I consider of special interest 
to the Bible student. Among the things I wish to 
speak of here is Aaron's and the children of Israel's 
relapse into idolatry while Moses was up into the 
mount with God getting the Ten Commandments ar- 



U2 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

ranged, and other important business, a draft of the 
Tabernacle, etc. Observe, " Moses, Aaron, Nadab, 
and Abihu and seventy of the elders of Israel." These 
by special arrangement were permitted to get a full 
view of Israel's God (see verses 10, 11). God is de- 
scribed as being enthroned on a paved work of sap- 
phire, "and upon the nobles of the children of Israel 
he laid not his hand: and they saw God and did eat 
and drink." I suppose what is meant by this is that 
this did not kill them as they had expected when God 
gave his first exhibition, and his warning. But here 
is the interesting part: Aaron, you should bear in 
mind, has had a full experience on this God question^ 
he went with Moses before Pharaoh; he was in close 
touch with everything God said and did in relation to 
his visitations upon the Egyptians ; he well knew the 
potency of Moses' rod; in fine, Aaron was the captain 
of the priesthood, the one that was to wear the Ephod, 
and all of the priestly paraphernalia, as God ordered. 
He had just heard God reiterate how he is going to 
drive all of these tribes, the Philistines, Jebusites, Ca- 
naanites, etc., out of this promised land, and his voice 
was with the people's when they said, " All the words 
which the Lord hath said will we do." Now, just think 
of it! Take advice! While Moses is attending to 
this business which is to thunder adown the millenni- 
ades, proclaiming the greatness of God, what is Aaron 
and his subordinates and all Israel up to? See Ex. 
xxxii. 1 : " And when the people saw that Moses de- 
layed to come down out of the mount, the people gath- 
ered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto 
him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 143 

as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of 
the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him." 
What would we suppose, in this case, Aaron would do? 
What does he do? He tells the people to break off all 
the golden earrings of their wives and children. He 
proceeds to make a pattern and to cast a golden calf. 
He then proceeds to carve it with a graving tool; and 
all Israel, who have witnessed all of this most wonder- 
ful demonstration of God's power, his wrath and mu- 
nificence, his promises of both judgment and mercy, 
relapse precipitately back into idolatry, by worshiping 
this calf, and Aaron heading the movement. Well, this 
creates a high time in camp, when you take a view of 
both sides of the question (the calf side and the God 
side). Moses, when he comes to a full realization of 
what is going on, casts down the tables of the com- 
mandments and breaks them into smithereens, which 
have cost so much time and trouble, grasps his sword 
and steps into the breach and shouts, " All that are 
on God's side, come with me ! " The result is, three 
thousand men are killed with the sword, and to make 
this slaughter more impressive, members of the same 
family are instructed tq slay fathers or brothers, as 
the case may be : that God may be avenged. After the 
battle Moses takes Aaron to task for this iniquitous 
proceeding. Aaron says he put the gold into the fire 
and this calf came out. Here it is painfully evident 
that Aaron has lied. Does this not look strange that 
Aaron should backslide at such a time as this, when 
God was right there doing miracles all the time, so 
before one had grown cold he was right on hand with 
a fresh one, and yet Aaron the High Priest would 



144 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

backslide at this critical time and lie! And yet the 
good parson will tell us we must believe the whole of this 
Bible or be damned ! 

Now I wish to call your attention to another thing 
that likely prolonged Moses' stay up in the mount, and 
caused this unfortunate relapse: Drawing up the 
plans for the tabernacle. You should read the descrip- 
tion of this tabernacle carefully, with all of its appur- 
tenances, the ark of the covenant and all, and make an 
estimate for yourselves about how many tons of gold 
would be required: count up the boards, sixty or over; 
consider the size of these boards, 18 feet long and 26 
inches wide, all to be overlaid with pure gold. Then 
the curtains, loops and sashes, sockets, roof of ram- 
skins and badger-skins, all of the stuff described with 
all of the furnishings would run up into the millions, 
and there would need be plants for casting and ma- 
chinery for metal-working way ahead of anything 
spoken of in Jewish history up to the time of their 
captivity. Now remember where they are and when; 
this is the third month in the wilderness. When Moses 
goes up in the mount, God is feeding them on manna 
and quails, all of this time — even when Aaron makes the 
golden calf — God goes into every detail about this tab- 
ernacle, till one is bewildered, even though he has stud- 
ied architecture, as he reads the strange description 
of this strange construction to be with all its furnish- 
ings. See Ex. xxxi. 1, 3: " And the Lord spake unto 
Moses, saying, See I have called by name Bazeleel the 
son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah : and I 
have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and 
in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 145 

of workmanship, to devise cunning works, to work in 
gold and in silver and in brass" 

God gives in minute detail how he has inspired men 
with understanding to execute the whole job, but 
observe, this is just as Moses is to take his departure 
from the mount, and on nearing the camp he hears this 
tumult of hilarity, or Joshua it was who heard it first. 
Then follows this precipitate butchery. It is evident 
from the account that God would have annihilated all 
Israel for this breach of conduct, right here and now, 
had not Moses have shown God the view the Egyptians 
would take of the proceedings. See Ex. xxxii. 11, 
" And Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord 
why dost thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which 
thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with 
great power, and with a mighty hand." After Moses 
expostulates and reminds God of the promises he has 
made to this people God bethinks himself, and repents 
him of the evil which he thought to do. 

But God concludes it will be hazardous for him to be 
in close attendance, lest he lose control of his temper 
and do something he may regret, so he sends an angel 
in his stead ; now just where and when this angel vacates 
his office of leadership and God resumes his old place, is 
not made just clear, but we will continue the trail as 
best we can. See Gen. xxxii. 34-35, Notwithstanding 
that God has placed an angel between himself and his 
people he forbade them to wear the ornaments which 
they borrowed of the Egyptians "And the Lord still 
plagued the people, because they made the calf, which 
Aaron made." 

Now in regard to this much preached of tabernacle, 



146 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

right on the heels of this misstep and the terrible 
tragedy which followed. See Ex. xxxiii. 7, " And 
Moses took the tabernacle and pitched it without the 
camp, afar off from the camp and called it the tab- 
ernacle of the congregation" 

Here Moses has set up this tabernacle before it was 
built! The ecclesiast may say this is an error in the 
translators, or a misplacement, but just consider the 
probabilities or possibilities of a thing of this descrip- 
tion being built, in fact, with those Israelites stranded 
on this desert, God having to sustain them with manna, 
for it seems that the quails were very uncertain and 
fluctuated to such tremendous extremes that they could 
not be counted on with any great degree of certainty or 
pleasure, as I shall try to show. Now while it is fresh 
in mind to give you an idea of how God run this quail 
deal we will turn the pages of the family Bible to Num. 
x. 1. You observe from reading this chapter that the 
complaints of Israel ran high because they had become 
tired of manna as a steady diet, just as we all do of a 
single thing too long at a time; but nevertheless this 
roused God's indignation to such a pitch that it set a 
fire going which consumed them that were in the utter- 
most parts of the camp. The people cried unto Moses 
and Moses prayed unto the Lord and the fire was 
quenched. The lesson to be drawn from this is that 
we must not expect to do our own praying, we must 
have our praying done for us by those clothed with 
Godly authority. 

It appears that there is a large mixed population of 
Gentiles during this whole forty year period in close 
proximity and right among this chosen people. Why 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 147 

or how this could be baffles one not clothed with Godly 
understanding: whether God was feeding l^hem on the 
same manna as he did his own or how and upon what 
they subsisted we are left to conjecture. 

But after Moses' prayers had quenched this fire, this 
mixed multitude fell to lusting, and the children of 
Israel wailed louder than before. Saying who will give 
us flesh to eat? This worriment was kept up until 
God's anger was kindled greatly, and Moses was dis- 
pleased. It seems from the account that Moses pos- 
sessed more of Job's quality than did God himself. Still 
these children continued to worry and bewail the day 
that they left Egypt, where they had fish and cucumbers 
and leeks, and melons, and onions, and garlic. At this 
God's anger waxes greater, and Moses complains bit- 
terly to God for having been called as their leader, be- 
cause of their continual cry for flesh. 

Moses says to God, " And if thou deal thus with rne, 
kill me I pray thee, out of hand, if I have found favor in 
thy sight, and let me not see my wretchedness" By this 
time God's anger reaches a point where it must have 
vent, so he lays his plans ; he tells Moses to tell the 
people to sanctify themselves, to put on cheerful coun- 
tenances and be in good spirits, because to-morrow they 
are going to be furnished with plenty of flesh. They 
were not to have it for one day only, but for a whole 
month, until they grew tired of it. It is apparent to 
the casual observer from God's manner and tone of ex- 
pression that this promise boded no good to Israel ; we 
will see how this proves in the sequel, God sets the 
wind to blowing from the sea, and this wind brought 
quails, just consider for a moment the amount of quails 



148 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

that were brought by this wind: a day's journey in 
every direction from the camp these quails lay in a 
solid stratum two cubits deep, over three feet. Here is 
the Bible for it " And the people stood up all that day 
and all that night, and all the next day, and they 
gathered quails ; he that gathered least gathered ten 
homers; a homer=six bushels, two pecks and four 
quarts, which would mean that the one who gathered 
least had in store sixty-four and one-half bushels of 
quails which they spread about the camp. And while the 
flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the 
wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people, and 
the Lord smote the people with a very great plague. 
This quail deal takes place according to the marginal 
chronology about one year after their passage through 
the Red Sea. The male adult population at this time 
is 600,000 this presumably places the whole number of 
souls at approximately 2,000,000, so you can form 
some slight conception of the magnitude of this joke 
which God has played upon his chosen. Christian friends 
think of this bit of history relating to the Father God 
when the parson admonishes you to rely implicitly upon 
the promises of God, and to take him at his word. 

At the time of the golden calf episode God promised 
he was going to send an angel to lead Israel in his stead ; 
but we are forced to think he has changed his mind and 
is officiating in person for this personage bears the same 
old name of Lord and God, and identifies himself in 
every particular as has this God ever since he com- 
menced doing business. 

Now I will invite your attention to a text in Num. 
xiv. 21. " But as truly as I live all the earth shall be 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 149 

filled with the glory of the Lord." This is a text that 
without doubt gives the Gentile or Christian churches 
great hope and unmistakable assurance that this is a 
harbinger of what was to come ; but you can clearly see 
this was said only in a heat of passion by this vacillating 
revengeful God, by reading the verses following in the 
chapter. I will give here the first two : 

" Because all those men which have seen my glory, 
and my miracles which I did in Etgypt and in the wilder- 
ness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and 
have not hearkened to my voice. Surely they shall not 
see the land which I swore unto their fathers, neither 
shall any of them that provoked me see it." 

Does not this sound big for the God who created and 
governs the universe, with our conception of what the 
universe is at this time. 

We will now turn the pages of this Bible back just 
two chapters as there is a matter of interest I had in 
mind to call your attention to, you will find it in Num. 
xii. 3, which reads, " Now the man Moses was very meek 
above all the men which were upon the face of the 
earth" I speak of this because in my premises I assumed 
these five books ascribed to Moses were not written by 
him, but were anonymous ~and without authority and 
this passage I offer as evidence that what I postulate 
is correct, for how could an author especially one 
engaged upon such a momentous work as a revelation 
from God, break right into his subject with such a silly 
effusion of self praise as this. While this may not carry 
conviction as does some of the things which I have and 
still expect to produce and embody into the bundle of 
evidence that Moses is but a child of the imagination. 



150 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

We must not higgle over little things so we will now 
turn to Num. xxi, beginning with the first of the 
chapter. "And the Lord spake unto Moses saying, 
Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites." Now 
it should be remembered that Moses' father-in-law, 
Jethro was a Midianite, and from his good advice and 
conduct, we are led to think the Midianites a very good 
class of people : but without apprising us of any offense 
committed by them, the Lord tells Moses to avenge the 
children of Israel of the Midianites. Remember this is 
the same God that wrote on the tables of stone. " Thou 
shalt not hill. Thou shalt not steal" etc. Now observe 
the conduct of this God-inspired man Moses. 

Now when the army returned from this murdering 
and plundering excursion the account goes on as fol- 
lows, verse 13, "And Moses and Eleazer the priest, and 
all the princes of the congregation, went forth to meet 
them without the camp; and Moses was wroth with 
officers of the host, with the captains over thousands, 
and the captains over hundreds, which came from the 
battle; and Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all 
the women alive? behold, these caused the children of 
Israel through the council of Balaam to commit trespass 
against the Lord in the matter of Peor, and there was a 
plague among the congregation of the Lord. Now there- 
fore kill every male amonig the little ones, and kill every 
woman that hath known man by lying with him. But 
all the women children that have not known a man by 
lying with him, keep alive for yourselves." 

Among the detestable villains that have in any period 
of the world disgraced the name of man it is impossible 
to find a greater than Moses, if this account be true. 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 151 

Here is an order to butcher the boys, to massacre the 
mothers, and ravish the daughters. Let any mother 
who is bound by the mystic chords of affection to her 
dear old family Bible, put herself in the situation of 
those mothers ; one child murdered, another destined to 
violence, and herself in the hands of an executioner. 

Let any daughter put herself in the situation of those 
daughters destined as a prey to the murderers of a 
mother and brother, and what will be their feelings ! It 
is in vain that we attempt to impose upon nature for 
nature will have her course, and the religion that tor- 
tures all her social ties is a false religion. 

After this diabolical order follows an account of the 
plunder taken and the manner of dividing it ; and here 
it is that the profaneness of priestly hypocrisy in- 
creases the catalogue of crime. Verse thirty-five says 
there were thirty and two thousand persons in all, of 
women that had not known man by lying with him, a 
rational estimate from this data would be there were 
about the same number of women butchered for the 
crime of having been married. In short the subject 
matter contained in this chapter as well as in a great 
many other parts of the Bible, are too horrid and re- 
volting for humanity to read or for decency to hear. 

Just let us consider for a moment the rationality and 
probability of this history: here are these Midianites 
if they were not in this same wilderness where God was 
keeping Israel alive all of this while by miraculously 
sending manna from above, where were they? I would 
ask. It appears from the amount of plunder that was 
secured that these Midianites were a prosperous people 
and were in possession of much wealth. Dear reader 



152 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

ask your kind parson to explain to you some of these 
knots of scripture hard to solve, and see what answer 
he can make. 

For reasons that are obvious we must hasten our 
review of Moses and his doings. I am desirous of getting 
out of this wilderness, as I should adjudge you all must 
be, and as we are taught to believe these chosen ones of 
God grew weary also of this forty-year sojourn, of the 
manna, and the strangely diversified visitations with 
which Jehovah visited them. There are many things I 
am loth to pass unnoticed, but must forbear for reasons 
before mentioned. 

CHAPTER XIII 

I now wish to call your attention to some portions of 
Deuteronomy, the last book ascribed to Moses. 

We will now turn our attention to Deut. xviii. 15-18, 
" The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet 
from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; 
unto him we shall hearken; (18) "7 will raise them up 
a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, 
and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak 
unto them all that I shall command him." 

I make this selection because the theological student 
and the Sunday-school scholar are referred to these 
passages as being one of the positive promises of the 
Christ of the New Testament. Now my aim will be to 
look up these promises and prophecies as we come up to 
them, that we may see just to what extent we are jus- 
tified in the conclusion that a Messiah is promised or 
prophesied of in the Old Testament scriptures. 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 153 

Firstly I wish to call your attention to the headings 
of this (xviii.) chapter which I before referred you to 
is no part of the canon: this reads (15.) "Christ the 
Prophet is to be heard." (20.) " The presumptuous 
Prophet is to die," 

It is painfully evident that this heading here is in- 
tended to deceive and delude the reader by suggesting 
an error before he has reached the text itself. 

Now who is this presumptuous prophet here spoken 
of? None can well misunderstand who is meant here, it 
is Moses. How does he thus become anathematized and 
why must he die? Moses overstepped his authority at 
the time he brought water from this historic rock of 
Horeb. Caused likely by the great stress of the occa- 
sion, between his countrymen dying of thirst, and his 
being stoned to death by them, in this crisis Moses 
forgets to reverence God just as God thinks he should 
be reverenced so the " black hand " is laid upon Moses, 
he must die, and here Moses is apprising Israel of his 
successor who is to take his place and lead them over 
Jordan, and the one here meant is none other than 
Joshua, and this is all that is meant in fact by this 
prophecy. 

Moses or Moses' God had no more thought of this 
Christ as a light to the Gentiles, than does this desk 
upon which I am writing. The extermination of the 
Gentiles was their only thought, and their only care, 
and the plunder they might secure thereby, as we will 
see when we follow them over the river. Now we will 
just turn a leaf of this book to (Chap, xx.) I have 
referred to this previously, but as it is right on the 
heels of this much talked of and referred to prophecy 



154 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

of Christ, I wish to call your attention to it here that 
you may see to what extent this God of Israel is think- 
ing about, or caring for the salvation or future happi- 
ness of the Gentile. The Ecclesiast recommends the 
searching and studying the scripture, so why should 
not I. Here are verses 16-17, you should read the whole 
chapter, "But of the cities of these people which the 
Lord thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou 
shalt save nothing alive that breatheth. 

" But thou shalt utterly destroy them, namely the 
Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the 
Perizites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the Lord 
thy God hath commanded thee" 

We will now turn our attention for a brief space to 
the Law of Moses as handed down to him from God. 
From my early boyhood I have heard this law referred 
to from the pulpit; the law and the prophets I was 
impressed were two of the greatest gifts God had ever 
bestowed upon mankind from Heaven; that the other 
portions of the Old Testament scripture were to an 
extent historical, and although there was much to be 
learned of God in this sacred history; but when you 
wanted God's sacred truth unadulterated, and in a 
quantity that fairly sweeps you from your feet, then 
you need to turn to the Law and the Prophets. 

There is so much of this law, and yet while it may 
not be so elaborate as the common and statute law of 
our civil and criminal codes of to-day, but there is too 
much to examine in detail, so we will take a sample or 
two which must suffice. It is with some difficulty that I 
make these selections owing to the excessive tendency 
toward the obscene. 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 155 

Here is selection first, Ex. xxi, 20-21, " If a man 
smite his servant or his maid with a rod, and he die 
under his hand, he shall surely be punished." Not- 
withstanding if he live a day or two, he shall not be 
punished ; for he is his money. 

Selection two Num. xvi. 32-46, " And while the 
children of Israel were in the wilderness they found a 
man that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath day. And 
they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto 
Moses and Aaron and unto all the congregation, and 
they put Mm in ward, because it was not declared what 
should be done to him. And the Lord said unto Moses " 
— here the Lord gives the law direct — " the man shall 
surely be put to death: all the congregation shall stone 
him with stones. And all the congregation brought him 
without the camp and stoned him with stones, and he 
died; as the Lord commanded Moses" 

Selection three, Deut. xxii. 20-21, " But if this thing 
be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for 
the damsel: then they shall bring out the damsel, to the 
door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall 
stone her with stones that she die, because she hath 
wrought folly in Israel, to play the whore in her 
father's house: so shalt thou put evil away from among 



Do I need to make any comments? You may say I 
have chosen samples that are not just fair, that I have 
made my choice among the worst laws in the whole code. 
I think not dear friends, but while there are some that 
are better, and some that may come to the level of 
present day morality, but if this code was given to 
Moses by any other than a man-made God, why should 



156 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

or how could there be such immoral, indecent, unjust, 
inhuman, degrading, enervating, diabolical, stuff as this 
be placed here? How can a belief in stuff like this 
afford pleasure? And yet this Bible in its entirety 
is preached and taught by Orthodoxy at this twen- 
tieth century as the unerring word of God, and this 
Law of Moses is offered as God's holy Law. 

Think of the innocent lives that the enforcement of 
this law has cost: of the torture that people have en- 
dured till death has come to their relief all for the glory 
of Israel's God! The edict of this God which says: 
" Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live," has set aflame 
the fires of hell, or of bigotry and ignorance, which has 
encircled the globe and has left its scars upon every 
nation known as Christian ; even America has her dark 
pages of history, an instance of which I will cite, known 
as the Salem massacre where twenty innocent souls were 
sacrificed to Israel's God. Running the state by this 
Mosaic code has been tried, dear friends, but thanks be 
to the Infinite and human intelligence or which you 
please we trust 'twill never be tried again. 

What mystifies me much, is, how a Christian mission- 
ary can have the effrontery at this time and age to 
put this Bible in the hands of what he calls the heathen, 
and teach them that it is the inspired and infallible 
word of God. 

If the Christian religions founded on the Bible are 
growing among what we are pleased to call the heathen 
nations it is certainly dying at the center. It is a sad 
reflection on Christianity that right where it had its 
birth and inception, Christianity is naught. 

It is also a sad reflection upon the Christian religion, 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 157 

the late war between Russia and Japan. Russia a Chris- 
tian nation whose priestly pretensions and dominations 
rank high and were relying much upon faith in God's 
promises, while Japan a little Pagan nation of no great 
pretensions overpowered Russia who boasted herself as 
being among the greatest, if not the greatest of the 
Christians of the world. 

Now I wish to invite your attention to Deut. xxviii. 
Observe here what God promises to this nation — the 
Israelites — if they adhere strictly to all these laws, 
ordinances, rites and ceremonies, passovers, extermina- 
tions and everything, both prospective and retrospec- 
tive, verse one, " And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt 
hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God 
to observe and do all his commandments which I com- 
mand thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set 
thee on high above all the nations of the earth. And all 
these blessings shall come on thee, if thou shalt hearken 
unto the voice of the Lord thy God." Everything per- 
taining to this world which heart can wish is to come in 
great profusion if they render implicit obedience to 
God. You should read this chapter carefully. 

But on the other hand if they disobey, verse 15, 
" But if it shall come to pass if thou wilt not hearken 
unto the voice of the Lord thy God to observe and do 
all his commandments and statutes which I command 
thee this day: that all these curses shall come upon thee 
and overtake thee." 

Then follows a series of curses somewhat like unto a 
papal curse, except it does not extend beyond this life. 
See verse twenty, " The Lord shall send upon thee curs* 
ing vexation and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine 



158 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until 
thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy 
doings whereby thou hast forsaken me." Also verse 
thirty, " Thou shalt betroth a wife and another man 
shall lie with her: thou shalt build a house and shall 
not dwell therein: thou shalt plant a vineyard and shall 
not gather the grapes thereof " See 36, " The Lord 
shall bring thee and thy king which thou shalt set over 
thee unto a nation which neither thou or thy fathers 
have known, and there thou shalt serve other gods, 
wood and stone" The whole taken together is a sweep- 
ing curse, and contains it would seem all that a depraved 
mind could invent with much repetition to keep the 
coward in his track: but when he comes down with the 
threat to put a wooden or a stone God in his place, the 
threat certainly loses its force, for who would not pre- 
fer a wooden or stone god, to one who has played the 
strange pranks that has this God : a wood or stone god 
would at least set up and behave himself while Israel's 
God has not. 

Now here is a thing germane to this subject, this 
God has not up to this time spoken of or hinted at one 
thing concerning a future life ; his law, his impelled wars 
for extermination and spoliation, everything in connec- 
tion and appertaining to this God is purely materialis- 
tic and carnal; and this you will find holds true with 
both God and his chosen to the end of the Old Testament 
Scripture, a period covering according to their Book of 
4,000 years. Now if Christ was promised as told us by 
the theologian these were entirely ignorant of this 
promise so that the slayer and the slain must find them- 
selves upon a common level, and the question that forces 
itself uppermost is where? 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 159 

I am well aware that there are those who will de- 
nounce this as blasphemy and may think that the fagot 
and stake should still be in force for this terrible 
sin and injustice in perverting the Almighty's plan, in 
not properly showing how these promises and prophe- 
cies of a Saviour to come have been made and are woven 
like a golden thread and is traceable through the whole 
fabric of this Old Testament Scripture, and what a 
glorious fulfillment of all this we find in the New Testa- 
ment. Dear friends I will be pleased to attend to this 
Christ question when I come to it, and am going to 
hurry as fast as I can consistently, but I wish to bring 
you properly against this all important subject. 

Now let me here ask you a question. Is this book of 
revelation and plan of salvation entirely satisfactory 
to you? Did you ever take time to analyze and con- 
sider what is meant by the word revelation ? 

If this Bible as a revelation, and the plan of salvation 
drawn therefrom are entirely satisfactory to you, I am 
not writing this book for you and you need read no 
farther; but will say to you that I once heard a 
Methodist minister declare from the pulpit that this 
revelation was not just what he would like, but that we 
must accept it because it was all we had, or words to 
that effect. Now the only value that can attach to any 
revelation from any God is that which best answers 
the purpose of robbing the grave of its victory, and 
taking the sting from death, or to put it as Job has it 
" If a man die shall he live again ? " Does this Bible, 
after studying it carefully, answer this question en- 
tirely to your satisfaction? To such as think it does 
not, we will proceed with our work. 

We will now turn our attention to Moses again for a 



160 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

little time. Moses was like the proverbial swan. He 
gives us a very prolix song of fifty-two verses just 
before taking his departure. See Deut. xxxii. He then 
pronounces a benediction upon the twelve tribes of 
Israel. See Deut. xxxiii. Then in Deut. xxxiv, he pro- 
ceeds to give us his obituary which closes the books 
ascribed to Moses. Now for Truth's sake we will make 
a brief study of this last chapter, verse one, says, " And 
Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the moun- 
tain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against 
Jericho : and the Lord shewed him all the land of Gilead, 
unto Dan, and all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim, 
and Manasseh, and the land of Judah, unto the utmost 
sea." 

Just consider the names of the divisions of this coun- 
try Moses is permitted to see, and contemplate what 
this signifies in regard to when this chapter was written. 
Here God shows Moses all of this promised land ! Just 
think of what an immense area this must be that 
Moses' natural eyes could encompass — unaided with a 
telescope — whose inhabitants were to become as the 
sands of the sea. Verse {ive 9 " So Moses the servant of 
the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to 
the word of the Lord." 

We are left to infer that Moses died upon the top 
of Mount Pisgah, but was buried in a valley in the land 
of Moab. " But no man knoweth of his sepulcher unto 
this day." This part of the story I believe ; that no man 
knows or ever knew the whereabouts of Moses' grave, for 
reasons which I need not at this time give. But just 
consider this hackneyed expression here used " until 
this day." This has been interlarded innumerably from 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 161 

the beginning to the end of these books, what signi- 
ficance can be placed upon this? If one were writing 
history as it occurs would he make use of this expression. 
See verses 9-10, " And Joshua the son of Nun was full 
of the spirit of wisdom: for Moses had laid his hands 
upon him." How does this appeal to your mentality? 
If Moses could have filled a man with the spirit of 
wisdom by laying his hands upon him, why did he not 
spend more of his time in this way? Verse ten, " And 
there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses 
whom the Lord knew face to face," 

Now Moses must be exonerated from pronouncing 
this eulogy on himself for Moses is dead and the Lord 
has buried him. Now the question that comes to the 
front is who is writing this? It is evident to any one 
of ordinary discrimination that the stylus has not 
changed hands as we slide from Deut. to Joshua: the 
style of diction is the same, it has the same ear-marks 
in every respect. 

It is evident that the writer is reaching a long way 
back into the past from many proofs as well as this 
verse under review, " And there arose not a prophet 
since in Israel like unto Moses" How long since I would 
be pleased to know. Moses according to the account is 
just dead, and yet according to this text the writer is 
making a comparison among a category of prophets 
and Moses was the best or greatest. That this Bible 
thus far is anonymous and was not written until cen- 
turies after it is claimed to have been and that it is a 
fraud is evident. We have some five or six points of 
proof positive that this portion of the scripture is fiction. 
First Gen. xiv. 14s. Where Abram, the Hebrew, pur- 



162 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

sued Lot's captors into Dan. Second Ex. xvi. 35. And 
the children of Israel did eat manna forty years until 
they came to a land inhabited ; they did eat manna until 
they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan. 
Third, Gen. xxxvii. The kings that reigned in the 
land of Edom before there reigned any king over 
the children of Israel. Fourth, Num. xii. 3. Moses 
advising us how excessively meek he is or was observe 
this was given in the past tense. Fifth, Deut. xxxiv. 
Moses giving the account of his own death and burial. 
Sixth. The expression unto this day which is many 
times repeated. Again the presumptive evidence is 
overwhelming that this Pentateuch is fiction and anony- 
mous and is destined to pass the stage of belief that 
it is a revelation from God. 

There is a thing that may have a tendency with some, 
to bolster this fallacy up more than any other one thing, 
and that is, that there are Jews who claim to be descend- 
ants of Israel, scattered broadcast all over the globe, 
and that they at least a portion of them claim this 
account to be true, and that they are practicing this 
thing called circumcision " unto this day." 

I admit we have purloined this Old Testament Scrip- 
ture from the Jews and their God also, but can this 
make it true. 

There were hundreds of Gods, the holy fathers had 
to choose from, the question is could they have chosen 
one more barbarous? I do not see how it were possible. 

But now the question comes to the surface if this 
Pentateuch is fiction, and since I have made promise 
that it still contains that which is of value you may 
think it time that I make this to appear at least to 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 163 

some extent, which I will now aim to do with pleasure. 

Now you remember the account of Jacob wrestling 
with the angel at Peniel, and that I constrained you to 
bear in mind how angels were woven into this story of 
the Pentateuch? Well there is nothing directly pertinent 
about this to our case only as it serves as a pointer. 
Now we will turn back to Ex. xxii, 18, which reads, 
" Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." See Lev. xix. 
31, " Regard not them that have familiar spirit s, 
neither seeks after wizards to be defiled by them I am 
the Lord your God" 

See Lev. xx. 6, "And the soul that turneth after 
such as have familiar spirits and after wizards to go 
a whoring after them I will even set my face against 
that soul, and will cut him off from among his people" 
See Num. xxii. 31, " Then the Lord opened the eyes of 
Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in 
the way, and his sword drawn in his hand; and he bowed 
down his head and fell flat on his face" See Deut. xviii. 
10-11, " There shall not be found any among you that 
useth divination or an observer of times, or an enchanter 
or a witch, or a charmer or a consulter with familiar 
spirits or a wizard or a necromancer" 

Now it is evident that there was some power, force 
or law existant that was inimical to this God's plans and 
purposes, a something that for some indefinable reason, 
he wanted stamped from the face of the earth. The 
question is what was this that God so hated? What was 
there about the witch, or the one that had a familiar 
spirit that this God had such a dread and abhorrence 
of? There is no chance for but one conclusion, and that 
is this : The Jewish Priesthood wanted the sole monop- 



164 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

oly over the realm of mystery and miracle, so that 
they could hold absolute sway with their despotism and 
to encourage informers and to quickly dispatch any who 
might be suspected of holding intercourse with excar- 
nate intelligences was their policy, so they proceed to 
make their tribal God to include this law in his code, 
in regard to killing witches and those who have familiar 
spirits with much repetition and variation sufficient to 
cover all cases which might come before their courts. 

This has not usually been understood by the great 
majority of writers against the Scripture and theology 
and could not well be understood at this time were it 
not for the light that modern research and investiga- 
tion has thrown upon this dark past. 

We cannot take up the time here with a vain attempt 
to show to you the hellish deeds that have been com- 
mitted in the name of God in enforcing and executing 
this law. Now, dear friends, as I have before adjured 
you that I may not be misunderstood, let me ask what 
object could I have in saying what I have said unless 
I am fully satisfied I am giving you the truth and that 
this truth can be demonstrated and proven beyond the 
shadow of rational doubt? 

One of the saddest things in human history, is this, 
that the Christian world for centuries, or from its be- 
ginning have misunderstood and misinterpreted this 
Bible. This is apparent from the burden of their hymns 
and prayers that they are not satisfied. Their hymns 
are teeming with breathings like this " God help my 
unbelief," and " Hark from the tombs a doleful sound," 
etc., etc., and the burden of their prayers is to have 
their faith strengthened, which proves that the Chris- 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 165 

tian is not wholly satisfied with his Bible or his 
creed. 

But here is a stanza from another hymn which has 
many times floated to my mind from the mystic sea of 
memory, which adjures us to, 

" Mount up the heights of wisdom. 
And crush each error low. 
Keep back no words of knowledge 
/That human hearts should know." 
With this admonition we will pursue our toil. 



CHAPTER XIV 

If you are not entirely satisfied with this Book called 
God's revelation as unfolded by the modern theologian, 
and have a desire to know if possibly there may not be 
something better, remain with me and I will give you the 
best my feeble pen can give, environed with my limita- 
tions of knowledge, time and space. Then let us prayer- 
fully pursue our work. These passages I have referred 
to in the law, and others I expect to point out as we 
come to them, prove conclusively that the Jewish Rabbi 
or Priest, the Papal Priest and our Protestant Churches, 
have all of these weary centuries been fighting and toil- 
ing on the wrong side of this Bible proposition, and 
have been feeding their flocks on the chaff and husks 
while the wheat has been ruthlessly rejected. 

When I first came into the knowledge that mankind 
in the mortal could commune with those who had de- 
parted this life, it was with great pleasure and satis- 
faction that I learned and came to an understanding 



166 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

of the analogy between what is termed " Modern Spirit- 
ualism " and " Biblical Spiritualism " to have it proved 
and made palpable that it was all one and the same 
thing, and that it had been obscured all of these milleni- 
ades by the juggles of Priestcraft and ignorance. Of 
course this is no discovery that I lay any claim to more 
than to be able to comprehend when these all potent 
facts are discovered to me. But the way the world has 
been deceived and the terrible error the Christian world 
has stumbled into through the wrong teaching of those 
claiming to be clothed with Godly authority is so pal- 
pable, that I cannot but feel it incumbent upon me to 
give this my testimony for what I firmly believe to be 
the truth, and which I claim can be demonstrated and 
proved. 

The data we have thus far discovered we will care- 
fully preserve; there is more to add as we pursue our 
work. We will now leave the scenes of this Pentateuch 
behind with but this to add. When this is proved to be 
fiction pure and simple and is without authority, which 
none can rationally dispute the rest of the Bible with 
the New Testament included is without foundation and 
must eventually fall to its proper level, or where it 
properly belongs. 

Now we will turn our attention to the Book of 
Joshua. No one can but observe that it is the same 
author that wrote the preceding books, and laid the 
whole plot, and has now brought these Israelites right 
up to the banks of Jordan. The climax is now reached 
and there has got to be something doing. Observe how 
he pours out his inspiration. Then he commands offi- 
cers to pass through the host and command the people 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 167 

saying (Joshua i. 11.) " Prepare you victuals; for 
within three days ye shall pass over this Jordan, to go 
in to possess the land, which the Lord your God giveth 
you to possess." 

Now Joshua what do you mean by this kind of talk, 
when we have beeen told repeatedly, over and over, 
that the Lord God was feeding you all, with manna 
these forty years, and in Chap. v. IS, of your own book 
it says, " And the manna ceased on the morrow after 
they had eaten of the old corn of the land; neither had 
the children of Israel manna any more; but they did 
eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year." What 
think ye? Now all of these plans for bloodshed and 
destruction have come to a focus; Jericho is the first 
doomed city. It looks as though the writer of this 
sacred history was inclined toward burlesque at times 
and here is an example. Joshua sends two spies over 
the river to reconnoiter and ascertain the strength of 
Jericho's walls: these two spies spy out a harlot by 
the name of Rahab and lodge with her. She manifests 
great sagacity in misleading her king in securing their 
capture and destruction. These spies promise Rahab 
and her nearest in kin salvation when Jericho is over- 
thrown, and here is the Scripture for it (Josh. vi. 25.) 
" And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive and her 
fathers household and all that she had: and she 
dwelleth in Israel even unto this day; because she hid 
the messengers, which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho." 

Dear friends, who wrote this stuff? Rahab the harlot 
is dwelling in Israel unto this day ! Is not this enough 
to put a smile on the face of the ungodly? 

Now we have not got much time on the program for 



168 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

Joshua so we will be obliged to do him pretty quickly, 
we will recount some of the old veteran's exploits for they 
are indeed wonderful, some of which have never been 
duplicated and I trust never will be. 

His throwing down the walls of Jericho with the 
priestly blasts from the rams horns is indeed a marvel. 

His settlement with the transgressor Achan of the 
tribe of Judah for taking of the accursed thing and hid- 
ing it under his tent, (Chap. vii. 24.) " And Joshua and 
all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and 
the silver and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and 
his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen and his asses* 
and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had: And all 
Israel stoned them with stones, and burned them with 
fire after they had stoned them with stones. And they 
raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day. 
So the Lord was turned from the fierceness of his anger." 
Should we not worship this God in spirit and in truth ! 
Yet, it is truly astonishing, the things that Joshua did 
and the stoneheaps that he reared which remain until 
this day. 

But General Joshua's masterstroke is recorded in 
(Chap, x,) M The City of Gibeon was a great city, and 
all the men thereof were mighty." Now it will be neces- 
sary in order to give you a fair understanding of 
Joshua's red letter day to give you a sketch from the 
preceding chapter (ix.). The fame of Joshua and God 
spread abroad all over the land, in consequence of these 
mighty exploits that had already been done ; the differ- 
ent tribes took different views of the situation ; but the 
inhabitants of Gibeon a mighty city concluded to resort 
to stratagem, for the sake of their lives. So they dis- 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 169 

guised themselves to look exceedingly travel-worn, with 
wornout shoes and mouldy bread, and they said to 
Joshua, " We be come from a far country : now therefore 
make ye a league with us." Joshua's suspicions and in- 
quisitiveness were both played upon ; they say to him 
we are thy servants. J. says, " Who are you and from 
whence came you?" They repeat the story, and that 
they have heard of the fame of Joshua and his God, and 
all they ask is just to be permitted to live and be serv- 
ants to Israel. There were Gibeon and three lesser cities 
entered into this scheme. Joshua administered the oath 
of allegiance and they become slaves to Israel. Joshua 
discovers this sharp practice inside of three days, but 
Joshua appears to take no notice of this breach of good 
behavior on the part of these Gentile tribes, and while 
God has charged him and all Israel many times, with 
all of the pains and penalties attached that in this por- 
tion of Canaan there must be nothing left alive that 
breathes ; yet here is this glaring breach to this order 
which here he permits to pass with his habitual wink. 
Consider the terrible punishment inflicted upon Achan 
and all his household for his petty transgression, while 
Joshua could neglect this duty of such vast and far 
reaching proportions, of slaying these tribes with the 
sword — and yet go scott free. In the case of King 
Saul, where he saved some of the cattle and sheep alive, 
when he smote the Amelekites from Havilah unto Shur. 
Saul for placing his judgment before obedience to God, 
although he declared he had saved these for sacrificial 
purposes for God himself, but notwithstanding he fell 
from God's favor lost his kingship his reputation and 
his life. Well when the neighboring tribes or kingdoms 



170 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

hear of this alliance of Gibeon with Israel, they also 
form an alliance and agree upon a plan of procedure, 
to smite Gibeon. Now here comes in again the mystery 
of Godliness ; despite this flagrant breach of obedience, 
Gen. Joshua and Gibeon and God unite in giving a day 
of butchery, that if not the greatest is among the 
greatest recorded in this bloodstained word of God. This 
day is specially unique in several respects. See (x. 
11-14.) "And it came to pass, as they -fled from before 
Israel, and were in the going down to Beth-horon, that 
the Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them 
unto Azekah, and they died: they were more which died 
with the hailstones than they whom the children of 
Israel slew with the sword." 

(12.) " Then spoke Joshua to the Lord in the day 
when the Lord delivered the Amorites before the children 
of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun stand 
thou still upon Gibeon; and thou Moon in the valley of 
Ajalon." 

(13.) " And the Sun stood still, and the Moon stayed 
until the people had avenged themselves upon their 
enemies. Is not this written in the Booh of Jasher? 
So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted 
not to go down about a whole day. 

(14.) " And there was no day like that before it or 
after it that the Lord hearkened to the voice of a man: 
for the Lord fought for Israel," 

It seems this account is taken from the Book of 
Jasher. What has become of the book of Jasher? We 
would be pleased to know, that we might become better 
acquainted with the Father God. If he had not have 
cast down those stones from heaven, and assisted Joshua 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 171 

in bringing the sun to a stand still this great and glori- 
ous victory might not have been won, and this glorious 
news could not have reached us, which must be such a 
satisfaction to the believer. 

But the victory does not end with these five kings, 
who made this attack upon Gibeon; these hide them- 
selves in a cave, Joshua orders his men to block them 
in with stones, and pursue the enemy and make a finish 
of them, he then returns to this cave brings out those 
kings, calls the captains, and tells them to put their 
feet upon their necks to inspire them with courage, and 
show them what is to be the fate of all whom they 
mjight be pleased to annihilate. Then Joshua with 
Godly satisfaction proceeds to slay them and hang them 
on five trees. This of itself would look like a big day's 
doings, even though it were a double length, but Joshua 
is not satisfied. Just read the account of this ambitious, 
blood-thirsty Joshua : he conquers seven more kingdoms 
this same day in rapid succession. Verse forty gives 
us a fair summary of the account of this day's doing: 
" So Joshua smote all the country of the hills, and of 
the south and of the vail, and of the springs, and all 
their kings: he left none remaining, but utterly de- 
stroyed all that breathed, as the Lord God of Israel 
commanded" We will not stop here to comment any 
farther than this, any who may doubt this history are 
referred to the stones at the mouth of this cave where 
these five kings were mured, for the Bible tells us they 
remain there "unto this day." There is one thing 
though I would speak of in this connection, for it 
appears from the reading of this account that this 
carnage consisted of Amorites ; now these Amorites, it 



172 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

must be remembered are the descendants of Lot, whom 
the angel of the Lord found to be the only just man in 
Sodom. 

Did God have this big day in view when he preserved 
Lot and his daughters, and was he looking ahead to 
this memorable time and these wonderful happenings 
with which to embellish his holy word. 

The Book of Joshua is the most sanguinary book in 
the Bible, it contains nothing of any value to my work 
only as it reveals this God's character perhaps as well 
as any in the Bible ; otherwise I could not wish to take 
up valuable time with it. 

Here is a thing I would call your attention to. Im- 
mediately after these terrible slaughters, where whole 
nations were exterminated, in the next chapter they are 
all alive again and have got to be all killed over again. 
For all these victories and exterminations, one can- 
not but feel an intermingling of doubt and wonder that 
they won't stay dead. From this account it seems they 
are all vanquished, and God is congratulating and 
admonishing them at the same time. (Joshua xxiv. 
13-14.) " And I have given you a land for which ye did 
not labor, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell 
m them; of the vineyards and olive yards which ye 
planted not do ye eat. Now therefore fear the Lord 
and serve him in sincerity and in truth." Now turn to 
(Joshua xv. 63.) " As for the Jebusites the inhabitants 
of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive 
them out: but the Jebusites dwell with the children 
of Judah at Jerusalem unto this day.' 9 

Again, in this same book (xvii. 11 to 13). Here is 
a whole catalogue of towns : the town of En-dor is in- 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 173 

eluded, where the witch lived (yet the children of Ma- 
nasseh could not drive out the inhabitants of those 
cities; but the Canaanites would dwell in that land). 
Note the remainder of this chapter. The tribe of Jo- 
seph complains because they have been given but one 
lot, and see the promise Joshua makes them for more 
land: "But the mountain shall be thine: for it is a 
wood, and thou shalt cut it down and the outgoings of 
it shall be thine; for thou shalt drive out the Canaan- 
ites though they have iron chariots and though they 
be strong" Then turn to Judges i. 19 : " And the 
Lord was with Judah and he drove out the inhabitants 
of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabi- 
tants of the valley, because they had chariots of 
iron" 

Again, verse thirty-four, same chapter: "And the 
Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountain; 
for they would not suffer them to come down to the 
valley" Now this is, according to their chronology, 
twenty-six years after the sun was stayed in his course, 
and God rained down rocks from heaven until no one 
would suppose there was an Amorite left alive : yet here, 
just twenty-six years later, this all seems to be entirely 
forgotten, and the Amorites are doing up Israel. These 
are only samples from this Bible, of which there are so 
many that we can only hope to hit upon a mere frac- 
tion. 

How appropriate seems the simile that those who 
believe this Bible to be a revelation from God to class 
them sheep and those who teach and lead them shep- 
herds ; and, dear friends, while you lick this orthodox 
salt from their hands and eat their theological husks, 



174 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

you must expect to be shorn by them whenever you have 
a fleece that offers an attraction. 

Just recently I naively asked a Methodist minister 
if he believed the story of Joshua and the sun. After 
some hesitation he replied that he did not, nor was this 
story generally believed by the ministry. Now, reader, 
if this is to be lopped off because it is too absurd, 
where will this lopping-off process end? You will find 
it necessary to continue lopping off until the whole 
Theistic Hypothesis is eliminated, and a new founda- 
tion for a faith becomes a stern necessity. 

We must now let Joshua rest. He is dead, at least ; 
we have two accounts of it, one in Joshua and one in 
Judges. This book is replete with internal evidence 
that it was not written by the one whose name it bears, 
and that it is a forgery and an imposition. We can 
never know by whom these books were written, but it 
is internally evident that the pen has changed hands, 
God has become uncertain in his movements, his power 
seems to have greatly abated ; his chosen are obliged to 
capitulate with their enemies, and the enemy seems to 
be gaining the ascendency. These chosen seem to be 
losing faith in their God, with a predominating tend- 
ency toward the other tribal gods. And why not? for 
their God was utterly inadequate to cope with iron 
chariots. It is clearly in evidence that Israel's God 
had utterly neglected to urge upon his chosen the ne- 
cessity of educating themselves in the arts and sci- 
ences. See 1 Sam. xiii. 19, 21 : " Now there was no 
smith found throughout all the land of Israel: for the 
Philistines said, Lest the Hebrews make them swords 
and spears. But all the Israelites went down to the 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 175 

Philistines to sharpen every man his share, and his 
coulter, and his axe, and his mattack. Yet they had a 
fie for the mattocks, and for the coulters, and for the 
forks, and for the axes, and to sharpen the ox-goads," 
What think ye of the Book of Judges? 

While the book of Joshua perhaps takes the cake for 
rapine and butchery, but for treachery and crime of the 
most revolting character, and for brutality which ap- 
peals to humanity and decency, I think Judges takes 
the lead, if it were possible to draw the line. I do 
not wish to take up but very little time with this book, 
but there are a few things to which I would call your 
attention. God here seems to have lost his bearings, 
but not his innate disposition. He wants the sword to 
still slay, so he incites internecine strife, civil wars 
right among his chosen. This God seems pleased to 
have a virgin, an only daughter, sacrificed and made 
a burnt offering to his glory. See Judges xi. 29 to 31 : 
" Then the spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah 
and he passed over Gilead, and Manasseh, and passed 
Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mtizpeh of Gilead he passed 
over unto the children of Ammon. And Jephthah vowed 
a vow unto the Lord, and said, If thou shalt without 
fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands, 
then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the 
doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace 
from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the Lord's, 
and I will offer it up for a burnt offering" 

Well, to abbreviate this dismal story: The Lord 
delivered the children of Ammon into his hands, and he 
smote twenty cities with a very great slaughter, and 
the Amorites were again subdued before the children of 



176 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

Israel. And when Jephthah returned to his house, his 
only daughter came out to meet him with timbrels 
and dances. This was his only child. He told her of 
the vow he had made, with great lamentation, but it 
had been made to God and could not be revoked. She 
accepted the sad situation, and only asked a reprieve of 
two months, in which to bewail her virginity with her 
companions, and at the end of this time she returns, 
and her father fulfills his vow. When we read this ac- 
count, should not our minds revert to the First Com- 
mandment, To love the Lord our God with all our mind 
and with all our strength ? You should read this Bible 
carefully for yourselves. There is so much that fur- 
nishes food for thought that I must of necessity pass 
unnoticed. 'Tis said " The ways of God are past find- 
ing out," but it appears there is one of his ways that 
is apparent he delights in rapine and slaughter to the 
extent that there is nothing so heinous, dark or cruel 
that he cannot condescend to do to gratify his nature. 
While he has been in such close communion all of this 
time, how much better would this look upon the pages 
of his book had he have said, Jephthah, forbear! 
Can there be anything conceived of the orthodox Devil 
that could beat this story? 

In the chapter following (Judges xii.) there is an 
account of another death harvest, " and there fell at 
that time forty and two thousand." 

Now we are up against (chapter xiii.) where Sam- 
son makes his advent and does a few stunts to lead us 
on in the ways of Godliness. Now I wish to impress 
upon you to take into consideration the first verse of 
this chapter: "And the children of Israel did evil 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 177 

again in the sight of the Lord. And the Lord delivered 
them into the hand of the Philistines forty years," 

Is it not strange that these children, with the good 
moral training that God has given them ever since he 
discovered Abram in Haran down to this time, that 
they should still persist in acting naughty and for their 
evil conduct God is under the painful necessity of pass- 
ing them over to the Philistines to take another degree 
in the house of bondage? 



CHAPTER XV 

This story of Samson, which begins with the thir- 
teenth chapter, I wish to call your attention to, for in 
this chapter is claimed to be one of the prophecies of 
Christ. See Matt. ii. £3. Samson is a character much 
talked of and much preached of. His birth is heralded 
by an angel, and as he is brought to being for a special 
mission to free Israel from the yoke of bondage, his is 
a name of more than ordinary interest. God sends his 
angel to give this woman " which was barren and bare 
not " certain directions in regard to food and drink 
during gestation, and that no razor is to come upon 
his head or face, after birth. Whether following these 
directions every time would produce a Samson we can- 
not say; the Scripture seems to infer as much. The 
woman, Samson's mother, goes and tells her husband 
what a wonderful visitor she has had, and what he told 
her, but she asked him not whence he was, nor did he 
tell her his name. Verse 7 : " But he said unto me, 
Behold, thou shalt conceive and bare a son; and now 



178 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

drlrik no wine nor strong drink, neither eat any unclean 
thing; for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the 
womb, to the day of his death" Here is the point I 
wish to call your attenton to, that is the signification 
of the word Nazarite. Webster defines it as is here 
implied, a Jew who bound himself by a vow to purity 
of life and devotion. It does not seem that Samson 
cared to adhere to these rules very closely. When we 
come to examine the prophecies of Christ, I shall need 
to refer you to this point, and that I am right here I 
wish to call your attention to this, that there is no 
analogy between a Nazarite and a Nazarene. See Matt, 
ii. 23 : " And he came and dwelt in a city called Naz- 
areth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by 
the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene" 

When you look up this reference in the book of 
Matthew in regard to this prophet and his prophecy, 
this is just where it lands you here in Judges. You 
will see that this is torturing the word Nazarite en- 
tirely out of its meaning, and is no more a prophecy of 
Christ than of George Washington. Bear this in mind, 
because when I come to it I expect to show that this 
is a fair sample of the much talked of prophecies of 
Christ. 

Now we will trace the career of Samson, because we 
are told it is God working through him, and this is the 
all-important thing and the one that should deeply 
interest us, is to know more of God. Well, Manoah and 
his wife want the angel to tarry and be refreshed, and 
also to make a burnt offering to him ; but he tells them, 
though they detain him he would not eat, and that they 
must make their burnt offering to the Lord. The angel 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 179 

tarries and they make the offering. In the meantime, 
they endeavor to find out his name, but he tells them 
it is a secret. They make the offering upon a rock, 
the angel takes advantage of the column of smoke, uses 
it as an elevator, and ascends to heaven. Now, observe, 
this writer is employing an angel or messenger — Where 
does this angel come from and to where does he go? is 
one of the great questions. 

Well, this frightens Manoah and his wife fairly out 
of their wits ; they fall on their faces and expect to die, 
because they think they have seen the Lord. But his 
wife reasons that if the Lord had been going to slay 
them he would not have received the burnt offering and 
told them all of these things. The woman's judgment 
was good. They did not die — at least, not at this time. 

This brings us to verse 24, which says : " And the 
'woman bare a son, and called his name Samson: and 
the child grew and the Lord blessed him." Verse 25: 
" And the spirit of the Lord began to move him at 
times in the camp of Dan," Now, what do we suppose 
is meant by this? The spirit of the Lord began to 
move him at times. Now, I will tell you what I think. 
You are none of you bound by my opinion, but from 
my viewpoint I have no doubt but the personage Sam- 
son was none other than a witch, or one which was 
controlled by a familiar spirit, and this it was that 
moved him at times ; that he really and truly belonged 
to the class that God once said must not be suffered 
to live ; and by the aid, or through this familiar spirit, 
he did things not understood by the people of his time 
or age, and was considered by them a man of God, and 
all of this myth and legend has attached itself to his 



180 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

name, and comes down to us as a part of the infallible 
word of God. Bear this in mind and keep this clew, 
for in time you may better understand. 

Here is a brief synopsis of Samson's career, begin- 
ning at Judges xiii. 24 : " And the woman bare a son, 
and called his name Samson; and the child grew and 
the Lord blessed him," Verse 25: "And the Spirit 
of the Lord began to move him at times in the camp 
of Dan" These are the two last verses of this chapter. 
The first verse of the next, or Judges xiv. 1, reads: 
" And Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman 
in Timnath, of the daughters of the Philistines." What 
a hotbed plant this Samson is ! Here is included in 
these two short verses his history to manhood as we 
here find him with matrimonial aspirations. 

He falls in love with this heathen woman at first 
sight, and desires his pa and ma to get her for him. 
They remonstrate with him for wishing a wife from 
among the uncircumcised Philistines. We are given to 
understand that his parents are ignorant of the won- 
derful, deep-laid plan of God in procuring through him 
Israel's freedom from these heathen Philistines. Just 
observe to what extent we are to understand from the 
account he does it. 

Well, Samson, his father and mother go down to 
Timnath to secure this girl; on their way, Samson 
seems to be wandering alone, and a lion roars against 
him. Samson proceeds to take Mr. Lion by the jaws 
and rends him as he would a kid ; he does not think this 
worth speaking of, but after a time he returns to Tim- 
nath to take this woman unto himself, and turns aside 
to see what had become of and how this dead lion is 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 181 

getting along ; he finds bees and much honey in his car- 
cass. He procures a quantity of this honey and goes 
on eating it until he comes up to his father and mother, 
and he gives them, and they also eat ; but Samson kept 
the secret. 

Well, it came to pass at Samson's wedding feast 
that he propounds this riddle, with this injunction, that 
if they make correct answer within seven days he is to 
give them thirty sheets and thirty change of garments, 
while, on the other hand, if they fail, they are to give 
the same to him. 

Here is the riddle: Out of the eater came forth 
meat and out of the strong came forth sweetness. 
Well, now the mystery of Godliness begins to manifest 
in Samson's taking a Philistiness for a wife. She weeps 
upon his neck until he tells her the secret; then she 
tells it to these, their Philistine guests. They come to 
him before the time limit with the answer: " What is 
sweeter than honey? and what is stronger than a 
Uon? " 

Here is where the unfathomable wisdom and good- 
ness of God comes in. Judges xiv. 19 : " And the 
Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he went down 
to Ashkelan, and slew thirty men of them, and took 
their spoil, and gave change of garments unto them 
which expounded the riddle. And his anger was kindled, 
and he went to his father's house." Verse 20 : " But 
Samson's wife was given to his companion, whom he 
had used as his friend" To what extent are we to 
suppose this maneuver can free Israel from the yoke 
of bondage? I would ask. And what does this drivel 
remind one of? It sounds like a nursery story, and 



182 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

is on a par with the story of Jack and the beanstalk 
or of Cinderella and the glass slipper, and was likely 
used as such in the land of its nativity, before it found 
its way into the Bible and is offered now as the infal- 
lible word of God. The story of the foxes and the 
Philistines' corn; his capture and his breaking the 
thongs with which he was bound; his killing a thousand 
Philistines with the jawbone of an ass; his becoming 
athirst and his cry to God for fear of falling into the 
hands of the uncircumcised ; God's making this same 
jawbone to yield good and wholesome water; Samson's 
spying out a harlot at Gaza ; his lodging with her till 
midnight, his enemies laying in wait for him ; his rising 
at midnight and carrying away the gates of this city; 
his wooing and marrying again another Philistine 
woman whose name was Delilah; her duplicity and 
treachery after she had got on to the secret of his 
strength ; the plan for getting him shorn ; his capture ; 
his being made blind ; his imprisonment ; their hilarity 
in anticipation of the sport Samson was going to make 
for them while he was grinding in the prison ; the lad 
that had charge of this poor blind wreck, and was lead- 
ing him by a string ; the roof of this temple where this 
festivity was held, crowded with Philistines ; Samson de- 
siring to be led to the two main pillars; his bowing 
himself against them and thereby causing the collapse 
of the whole of this vast edifice, with 3000 Philies who 
are in and on this structure and are all killed, and 
Samson with the rest; — looks as if this Nicene Coun- 
cil, and all other councils that have had authority in 
accepting or rejecting the material of which this Bible 
is composed, had a credulity tremendously out of pro- 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 183 

portion to their reason, their common sense and judg- 
ment ; and all the more so does it look, of those who 
profess to believe it at the present day. This story of 
Samson is so extremely silly, and yet it is as rational 
as any up to this point, but for silly drivel I think 
this account stands a trifle ahead. There is not one 
thing to be gleaned from this story of Samson but 
the weakness of mankind upon this God question — and 
this can as truly be said upon all we have yet been 
over. The Israelites, 'tis said at the beginning of this 
story,, had sinned again, and had passed into captivity 
to the Philistines for forty years — as long as they were 
in the wilderness. All of this great splurge about Sam- 
son to procure their freedom and not one thing to 
show that he did one thing toward it! It does not 
seem that it need be necessary to spend time trying to 
impress you that such drivel as this is not a revelation 
from God! If anyone should write such trash as this 
now, none would think of calling it anything but tom- 
myrot : then, what in the name of reason can be offered 
to justify the belief that stuff like this can be a reve- 
lation from the Infinite God? Can the lapse of time, 
or translating it from dead languages, and proclaiming 
it from the pulpit, and the credulity of ignorance make 
it true? My answer is, No; never. And how can there 
be pleasure in believing it true? I would ask. The 
saddest thing that could befall me, were the impossible 
to take place, would be to believe this Bible true, and 
that the Almighty, Infinite God is what he is repre- 
sented therein to be. I may have said this before, but 
this is one of the things I wish to repeat. For were 
this so, I could but exclaim with the poet: 



184 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

If all our hopes and all our fears 
Were prisoned in life's narrow bound; 

If, travelers through this vale of tears; 
"We saw no better world beyond; 

"Oh, what could check the rising sigh; 

What earthly thing could comfort give? 
Oh, who then would wish to die? 
Oh, who could then endure to live?" 

It would seem as though somewhere throughout this 
Old Testament Scripture, as much as there is of it, that 
there might be something that could be read in regard 
to this God's dealings with mankind without harrowing 
up one's feelings ; something that is not a travesty upon 
humanity and decency ; but, my friends, I have searched 
this Old Scripture diligently, but fail to find one sen- 
tence that justifies the Ecclesiast in saying, " That God 
is Love." But, on the other hand, he seems to take de- 
light in inciting murder, war, lechery, rapine and 
gloom. And this is the Christian's Father God. 

If you think I have overstated this and am pervert- 
ing the Scripture, please read chapter xix. of this book 
Judges; then consider it, take advice, and speak your 
minds. Then it might be well for you to read the next 
chapter following, and then the next, which concludes 
this book, that you may see what a conscienceless, char- 
acterless, vacillating God is this of Israel's. 

The next book in order is the book of Ruth. This 
book contains but four chapters. There is nothing 
from which we can draw the least inference as to who 
wrote this silly, bungling story about a strolling coun- 
try girl creeping slyly into bed with her cousin Boaz. 

The only reason I can assign for incorporating this 
story into the word of God is that, in consequence of 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 185 

this expression of love upon the part of Ruth, there is 
an offspring brought into being whom they name 
Obed, who, according to this account, is the grand- 
father of David, whose lineage the Bible-makers claim 
to trace down to Christ. 

This book of Ruth takes due pains to show this up. 
See Ruth iv. 17. Has not the believer good reason to 
be proud of their Saviour's ancestral line. This book, 
however, is unlike the preceding ones, as it is free from 
murder and rapine, and is, in consequence, one of the 
best books in the Old Testament. 

We now come to the books of Samuel. It is cer- 
tainly impressive that every time, or nearly so, that we 
are to be furnished a great Bible character or man of 
God, he is to be the progeny of a woman that is bar- 
ren, and that there need be godly interference in order 
that she may reproduce. This is the case, as you may 
see, with the mother of Samuel, Hannah. Who wrote 
the books of Samuel? This is a thing we never may 
know. It was once taught that the names that these 
books bear were the authors of these books ; but this is 
entirely ungrounded, and I do not think that any stu- 
dent of to-day would claim any such thing, were he a 
believer or not. The proof to the contrary is too 
great. This child Samuel, after he was weaned, was 
given to the Lord, or, in other words, to Eli the Priest. 
Eli's sons were sons of Belial, which means they had no 
faith or belief or fear of Israel's God. This, it seems, 
might exert a derogatory influence, but we will let this 
pass. Now, these books of Samuel are valuable on the 
side of spiritual truth, or, in other words, to prove 
the antiquity of Spiritualism, and to aid the searcher 



186 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

after knowledge in getting this great and all-important 
truth out of its unpopular condition and entangle- 
ments, into which it has descended by long established 
errors. But while they contain proof, they also con- 
tain a vast amount which must be rejected as sacer- 
dotal rubbish, and it is difficult to dissect out that 
which will be of use, it is so bracketed into that which 
is worthless. The worthless in these books we will not 
spend much time upon; we have been dealing on this 
side of the proposition pretty much entirely up to this 
time, and now we will give our attention for a little 
while to this, the other side. See 1 Sam. iii. 1 : " And 
the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli. 
And the word of the Lord was precious in those days; 
there was no open vision." If you will read this chap- 
ter carefully, you will see that Samuel was none other 
than one who conversed with " familiar spirits," and 
was therefore a witch, or what is termed in modern 
times a spirit medium, and that this voice that Samuel 
heard calling him was no more of a God than any 
spirit entity who in our day may wish to communicate 
to those in earth-life. 

This spirit wanted to convey to Eli this message: 
That Israel was going to meet with defeat, by the Phil- 
istines, and his two sons would be slain. Things sim- 
ilar to this are of common occurrence, of things about 
to happen, within the ranks of Spiritualism in our day 
and time, and are not believed by the Christian world ; 
but the glamor by which time has encircled this, and 
that it is God who has spoken, makes this true, while 
present-day communication is either the Devil, or we 
are deceived, or it is downright falsehood. This power 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 187 

that Samuel had is identical with that of the witch, 
only if it has the arm of the priesthood thrown around 
it, he is a prophet, and if not within the pale of the 
Jewish priesthood, he or she is a witch, and must suffer 
their common fate. 

Now this Scripture, beginning with Samuel, reads 
more natural, and though steeped in superstition and 
legend, but think there may be a trace of truth in the 
historical record; we can only be guided by judgment. 
There may have been this man by the name of Samuel, 
but whether fiction or not, the writer of these two 
books had some knowledge of spiritual manifestation 
and follows it out in pretty fair shape, considering to 
what extent it may have been distorted in making the 
innumerable translations through which it has passed. 
Just what this Ark was like, we cannot tell. It seems 
to have been a fetish or talisman around which much 
superstition had attached. 

Some think, and perhaps this may be so, that it was 
a chest or kind of cabinet and was magnetized by spirit 
power, and that their God manifested and communi- 
cated by means of this; it may be true to an extent. 
But as I have said, it is impossible to sift the truth 
from the immense aggregation of error. But we have 
got data sufficient to our needs, without trying to de- 
termine just how much truth there is in the book of 
Genesis. 

It seems that Samuel was en rapport with some tu- 
telar or control that had been running Israel and had 
given her some mighty hard runs — so hard, that they 
had become tired of it, and had come to the conclusion 
that they had rather have a king like other nations 



188 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

round about them. This displeased Samuel, and dis- 
pleased this control as well. 

See 1 Sam. viii. 6 to 8 : " But the thing displeased 
Samuel, when they said give us a King to judge us. 
(And Samuel consults his control.) And the Lord said 
unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in 
all that they say unto thee, for they have not rejected 
thee but they have rejected me, that I should not reign 
over them. 9 ' Verse 9 : " Now therefore hearken unto 
their voice: howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, 
and shew them the manner of the king that shall reign 
over them." Then Samuel goes before the people again 
and tells them that when they get their king, he will 
be one of the worst of tyrants, that he will enslave their 
children, and tax them until they would rue the change. 
Nevertheless, they refused to obey the voice of Samuel 
and said, Nay, but we will have a king. " Then the 
Lord said to Samuel, Hearken unto their voice and 
make them a king." 

Now, reader, if you will put in place of this God an 
excarnate entity, one who has no qualms of conscience, 
neither in regard to truth or humanity: an entity who 
has been an inhabitant of this earth, and has been a 
warrior of the most brutal type, even in those ancient 
days; one that was earth-bound and delighted in car- 
nage, and had made no progress morally; substitute 
an entity of this description in place of what theology 
tells us is the true and living God; then consider the 
infinite as much above such conduct as the noonday sun 
is above or transcends a glow-worm, and you have this 
problem in a shape that is reducible. 

Now, in the light of Modern Spiritualism, this is a 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 189 

perfectly rational conclusion and the only one that 
will square with the conditions. This gives the Bible 
to Spiritualists and thereby makes it a valuable book 
of reference. Now, opponents may exclaim, and vitu- 
perate, and say what they may, but this solution you 
will find, the more you investigate, the more rational 
it will appear. 

Of course, accepting this theory does not make these 
old traditions and horrifying Bible stories any more 
true ; it simply enables us to emancipate ourselves from 
the bondage of slavish credulity and ignorance, and to 
trace this thread, which may sometimes be found upon 
the positive side and sometimes upon the negative side, 
but is traceable, and the analogy is palpable and prov- 
able between present-day knowledge and what may be 
gleaned from remote antiquity that Spiritualism is as 
old as man himself. 



CHAPTER XVI 

Now this God did not wish to take a second-hand 
place in running the affairs of Israel, so he tries to 
scare the people out of this plan by making them be- 
lieve that he is going to place a terrible king over 
them ; but when he finds this fails, then he searches out 
the best man he can find, in his judgment, in all Israel. 
See 1 Sam. ix. 1, 2: "Now there was a man of Ben- 
jamin, whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, the son 
of Zerar, a mighty man of power. And he had a son 
whose name was Saul, a choice young man and a 
goodly: and there was not among the children of Israel 



190 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

a goodlier person than he; from his shoulders and up- 
ward he was higher than any of the people" Well, 
this young man God selects for Israel's first king. You 
see from this how uncertain is this God in regard to 
what he says: he promises the very worst type of a 
king, and then proceeds to select what he thinks the 
best. Now, contained in the 1 Sam. ix. and x., which 
you should read carefully, for here is a lesson which 
substantiates my claim perhaps as well as any con- 
tained in the Old Testament Scripture. Saul's father 
loses some asses ; he tells Saul to take a servant and 
go in pursuit of them. Well, Saul and this servant 
search over a large scope, but do not find them. " And 
when they were come to the land of Zulph, Saul 
thought they had best return, for their people would 
be more concerned for them than for the asses. This 
servant said to Saul, Behold, now there is in this city 
a man of God, and he is an honorable man; all that he 
saith cometh surely to pass: now let us go thither; per- 
adventure he can show us our way that we should go" 

They talk the matter over; that they have nothing 
with them to pay for a sitting with this man of God. 
But the servant searches himself and finds the fourth 
part of a shekel, and thinks this man might tell them 
where the asses were for this money. Verse 10 : " Then 
said Saul to his servant, Well said: come, let us go. 
So they went to the city where the man of God was." 

As they approached the city they saw young maidens 
drawing water; they made inquiry of them. They told 
Saul that he had just came and was right there on 
the ground. So they went into the city, and came right 
against this sought-for man of God, Samuel, as he was 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 191 

on his way up to the high place. Observe verse 15: 
" Now the Lord had told Samuel in his ear a day be- 
fore Saul came, saying, To-morrow about this time, I 
will send thee a man out of the land of Benjamin, and 
thou shalt anoint him King that he may save my people 
out of the hand of the Philistines: for I have looked 
upon my people because their cry is come unto me." 
Verse 17 : " And when Samuel saw Saul, the Lord said 
unto him, Behold the man whom I spake to thee of. 
This same shall rule over my people." 

Now, is it rational to believe that the Infinite could 
condescend to affairs like this, and make such mis- 
steps and blunders and be obliged to rearrange and 
reconstruct his plans only to fail again and again, as 
the whole history shows throughout? 

But put this thing the other way, and postulate in 
place of God a spirit entity with an intelligence at 
par with mortals at that time ; then free your mind of 
the error of a fixed heaven and a high-walled hell, then 
assume that both good and bad can, under favorable 
conditions, communicate to those in the mortal, and 
the Bible is not so hard a problem. You can then see 
where Ancient Spiritualism has left its trace, and where 
ancient priestcraft has left its trail. 

Let us return again to Saul, verse 18 : * c Then Saul 
drew near to Samuel at the gate, and said: Tell me, I 
pray thee, where the seer's house is. And Samuel an- 
swered Saul and said, I am the Seer; go up before me 
unto the high place; for ye shall eat with me to-day 
and to-morrow I will let thee go, and will tell thee all 
that is in thine heart." Verse 20: " And as for thine 
asses that were lost three days ago, set not thy mind 



192 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

on them: for they are found. And on whom is all the 
desire of Israel? Is it not on thee, and on all thy 
father's house? " 

Here is a clean-cut case of telepathy and clairvoy- 
ance. This medium Samuel seems to have been in posses- 
sion of several phases of mediumship. Saul did not know 
what to make of all this, and began to plead that he 
was only a common man, that he was only a Benja- 
minite, and that they were the least among the tribes 
of Israel, and his father the least among them: and 
was therefore unworthy such adulation, and makes Saul 
feel somewhat embarrassed. But Samuel takes them 
right into his best room, gives them his best chairs, 
among about thirty guests that are bidden. Well, 
Saul and this servant were entertained in great shape, 
and in the morning Samuel called Saul in good season 
and accompanied him down one of the streets of the 
city, and asks Saul to bid the servant to pass on before 
them, as he has a communication from this God that 
he wishes to give Saul. See 1 Sam. x. 1. 

Then Samuel anoints Saul King of Israel, and gives 
him a prediction of the events that are to take place 
with him during the day as he journeys home. Please 
read this account, as I cannot take up the time here 
to give it in full. It says when he reaches a certain 
place where there were a garrison of Philistines, that 
he would meet a company of prophets (musicians are 
here called prophets), with a psaltery, a tabret, a pipe 
and a harp before them, and they shall prophesy (play 
upon these instruments). "And the spirit of the Lord 
will come upon thee and thou shalt prophesy with them 
and shall be turned into another man." 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 193 

Well, this prediction is said to have been fulfilled to 
the letter. 

It is apparent that what is meant by prophesying 
in this case is playing upon these instruments and sing- 
ing; and that Saul was to be controlled by a spirit 
entity that understood music, and he was going to sing 
or play with them. It appears from the surprise ex- 
pressed by those who knew Saul that he had no knowl- 
edge of music, and when they saw him playing in this 
manner they expressed astonishment and exclaimed, " Is 
Saul also among the prophets ? " All of these things 
which are said to have taken place between Samuel and 
Saul at this time are a very common type of spiritual 
manifestation in our day, as can be proved by those 
who may wish to know. We will not need to follow this 
medium or man of God, Samuel, any farther at this 
time. This account of Samuel and Saul is valuable in 
that it shows that Spiritualism is of great antiquity 
and that these manifestations parallel those of the . 
present day, so there need be no mistake, and if Spirit- 
ualism was true then, upon what ground and why 
should we reject it now? Or why should we wish to? 

Several years ago I was working with a young man. 
He made no profession to any belief that I knew of 
in regard to any religion. He had some relatives in 
the western part of this State (New York), which he 
went to visit when he was a young boy. And when 
there he went with some of his friends to a spiritualist 
camp-meeting at Lily Dale. He was at this camp but 
one day, and yet he seemed to have learned enough in 
this short time to discover that Samuel was a spirit 
medium. A number of years after, when he was mar- 



194 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

riedf and was the father of several children, it hap- 
pened that he had attended Sunday school and the 
subject had been " Samuel and Saul"; and the follow- 
ing Monday he turned to me and said : " Samuel of 
the Bible was just a spirit medium, wasn't he? " I had 
been studying this subject but a short time, but was 
impressed to see how apparent this history of Samuel 
and modern Spiritualism is to the casual observer. 

Well, Saul ascended to the throne of Israel. There 
is no object in following him closely any farther. It 
is the same old story again, over and over. Saul did 
not make the second move before this fastidious God 
was displeased and was ready to throw him overboard 
and put another in his stead. See 1 Sam. xiii. 5: 
"And the Philistines gathered themselves together to 
fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots, and six 
thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is 
on the seashore in multitude. When the men of Israel 
saw that they were in a strait — for the people were dis- 
tressed — then the people did hide themselves in caves, 
and in thickets, and in rocks, and in high places, and 
in pits" They skidooed in every direction. " As for 
Saul, he was yet in Gilgal and all the people followed 
him trembling" Well, Samuel had gotten Saul into 
this job of being King, and Samuel's appointed time to 
be at Gilgal had arrived, but no Samuel. So Saul 
concludes the best thing he can do is to make a burnt 
offering to God, to be followed with prayer or suppli- 
cation. After a time Samuel appears upon the scene 
and asks Saul, " What hast thou done ? " Saul 
tells him the situation, and thought the best thing he 
could do under the circumstances was to make a burnt 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 195 

offering and supplication. 1 Sam. xiii. 13: "And 
Samuel said unto Saul, Thou hast done foolishly: thou 
hast not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God, 
which he commanded thee: for now would the Lord have 
established thy kingdom upon Israel forever. But now 
thy kingdom shall not continue." 

God is now ready to turn Saul down: and for what 
reason? The only reason that Reason can ascribe is 
because Saul offered sacrifice and put up a prayer to 
this God in this terrible emergency. Let us just con- 
sider Saul's show for victory. Saul, the account says, 
had an army of three thousand. The Philistines' force 
consisted of thirty thousand chariots, six thousand 
horsemen, and footmen which were as the sands on the 
seashore. The men of Israel had no courage for bat- 
tle and fled; what better could they do? See verse 19: 
" Now there was no smith found throughout all the land 
of Israel: (observe) for the Philistines said, Lest the 
Hebrews make them swords and spears." 

The Israelites were wholly dependent upon the Phil- 
istines, their enemies, for everything, both implements 
of war and agriculture that were made in iron. 

The story of Joshua's staying the sun and of God 
raining rocks upon the enemy, seems to have wholly 
lost its force and to be wholly forgotten by both Jew 
and Gentile. Verse 22 : " So it came to pass in the 
day of battle that there was neither sword nor spear 
found in the hand of any of the people that were with 
Saul and Jonathan." 

There is no object in following this account any far- 
ther here. It runs too wild to be of any value to the 
one who may wish to believe or to those who find com- 



196 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

fort in not believing. It proves this God of Israel so 
fickle, so unreliable ; but to be brief, it is the same old 
story over again. 

The object in making this selection, and the object 
lesson to be drawn therefrom, is that the only reason 
discernible for Saul's falling from God's grace is that 
in this dilemma he offers up a sincere, heartfelt prayer 
to this God. If anyone can explain it otherwise, I 
would be pleased to hear from them. 

We will now turn to 1 Sam. xxviii. In this chapter 
is an account of what in modern parlance is called a 
seance given on the negative, or what orthodoxy would 
call the evil side of the proposition : and instead of this 
being given through a man of God, this is through a 
woman which the catechism instructs us is of the Devil. 
But let us do just a little independent thinking for 
ourselves, even if it is contrary to churchanity. The 
world cannot advance without some independent 
thought. 

The beginning of this chapter is the same old story, 
only instead of Israel leaving nothing alive that 
breathed, the Philistines are the aggressors and don't 
seem to take — come to get right down to business — 
any stock in the old scarecrows of the Red Sea and 
Moses' Rod, Joshua's Sun, and God's Rocks, and all 
that: It is evident that God is becoming puerile, is 
losing his force as all who read can see. His power con- 
sisted in legendary lore and this was fast losing its 
force. And right here the Philistines had gathered 
their armies together — so unlike the inhabitants of 
Gibeon — for warfare to fight Israel. 

Verse three, " Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 197 

had lamented him. And Saul had put away those that 
had familiar spirits, and the wizards out of the land" 

Now I must break in upon my story for a short 
space, that we may catch a glimpse, that we may form 
a faint idea of the damnableness in the application and 
execution or enforcement of this God's Law, "Thou 
shalt not suffer a witch to live." Just this one thing 
if there were nothing more, no other charge, this is 
sufficient to condemn this God and relegate him to the 
cemetery where the Pagan gods of Egypt, Rome and 
Greece have been interred. Just think an allwise God 
even if there were witches and these witches were mean 
to make an edict that certain individuals within the 
realm are to be informed against and killed ! And for 
what, because they have a gift or quality not common 
to all. Mr. God who made the witches and all the rest 
of creation that you seem pleased to have so brutishly 
exterminated? Just consider what poor deluded Saul 
did here, where it says he had put away the witches and 
those that had familiar spirits. It means that there had 
been committed a deliberate cold blooded, wholesale 
murder of innocent people in the execution of this God's 
Law. 

Just contemplate this one instance, and then consider 
the hundreds of hellish deeds of this character that 
have been enacted, where God's law gave opportunity 
for one to inform against another whether in regard to 
religion or malice or selfish designs to get someone 
out of the way ; all that needs be is to procure a pro- 
scription inform against him and have him removed, 
put to death for the glory of God. We know the de- 
pravity to which man can descend in our day and 



198 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

time. Did God know or consider the cursed advantage 
that could be taken by depraved, dissolute man ; in con- 
sequence of such a God-given law? 

Can we ever duly appreciate what has been done for 
the world by those great and good men, who in the 
struggle for freedom, have not believed? 

On the other hand can we contemplate or realize 
the condition into which we would descend, could Priest- 
craft and Ecclesiasticism have carried out their designs 
and plans unchecked? 

Now to our Bible lesson, 1 Sam. xxviii. 5-6-7, " And 
when Saul saw the host of the Philistines, he was 
afraid and his heart greatly trembled. And when 
Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord answered him not, 
neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets," 

" Then said Saul unto his servants seek me a woman 
that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her and 
inquire of her. And his servants said to him^ Behold 
there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at En-dor. 

" And Saul disguised himself and put on other 
raiment, and went and two men with him, and they 
came to the woman by night: And he said I pray 
thee, divine unto me by thy familiar spirit, and bring 
me him up, whom I shall name unto thee." 

Verse nine, observe what the woman said : ** The 
woman said unto him, Behold thou knowest what Saul 
hath done, how he hath cut off those that have familiar 
spirits and the wizards, out of the land: wherefore then 
layest thou a snare for my life, to cause me to die? ** 

" And Saul swore to her by the Lord, saying, As the 
Lord liveth, there shall no punishment happen to 
thee for this thing. - 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 199 

" Then said the woman whom shalt I bring up unto 
thee? And he said bring me up Samuel. 

" And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a 
loud voice; and the woman spake to Saul, saying, Why 
hast thou deceived me? for thou art Saul. 

" And the king said unto her, Be not afraid; for what 
sawest thou? And the woman said unto Saul, I saw 
God ascending out of the earth. And he said unto 
her what form is he of? And she said, An old man 
cometh up; and he is covered with a mantle. And Saul 
perceived that it was Samuel, and he stooped with his 
face to the ground and bowed himself." 

(15.) "And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou 
disquieted me, to bring me up? And Saul answered, 
I am sore distressed; for the Philistines make war 
against me, and God is departed from me, and 
answereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by 
dreams; therefore I have called thee that thou may est 
make known to me what I shall do. Then said Samuel, 
Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing the Lord 
is departed from thee, and is become thine enemy? And 
the Lord hath done to him as he spoke by me: for the 
Lord hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand, and 
given it to thy neighbor, even to David: Because thou 
obeyedst not the voice of the Lord, nor executedst his 
fierce wrath upon Amelek, therefore hath the Lord done 
this thing unto thee this day. Moreover the Lord will 
also deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the Phili- 
stines; and to-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with 
me: the Lord also shall deliver the host of Israel into 
the hand of the Philistines. Then Saul fell straightway 
all along on the earth, and was sore afraid, because of 



200 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

the words of Samuel; and there was no strength in him; 
for he had eaten no bread all the day, nor all the night. 
(21.) "And the woman came unto Saul, and saw that 
he was sore troubled, and said unto him, Behold, thine 
handmaid hath obeyed thy voice, and I have put my 
life in my hand, and have hearkened unto thy words 
which thou spakest unto me. (22.) "Now therefore 
I pray thee hearken thou also unto the voice of thine 
handmaid and let me set a morsel of bread before thee! 
and eat that thou mayest have strength when thou 
goest on thy way. (23.) " But he refused and said I 
will not eat. But his servants together with the woman 
compelled him; and he hearkened unto their voice. So 
he rose from the earth and sat upon the bed. (24.) 
"And the woman had a fat calf in the house; and she 
hasted, and killed it, and took flour and kneaded it, 
and did bake unleavened bread thereof. (25.) "And 
she brought it before Saul and before his servants; and 
they did eat. Then they rose up and went away that 
night: 9 

I have here made a quotation of considerable length 
from the Scripture ; because I consider here is altogether 
the most valuable lesson taught in the Bible. In fact 
there are several important lessons embodied in this 
selection, which I will now aim to briefly call your atten- 
tion to. 

First — When Saul saw the host of the Philistines he 
was afraid and his heart greatly trembled ! How could 
it have been otherwise, when the Iron trust was con- 
trolled absolutely by the Philistines, and Israel could 
not so much as manufacture an ox-goad! Is not this 
a pretty story to offer to the little boy and girl at 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 201 

Sunday-school and to the heathen as well, that this 
Bible God is the greatest God there is, and that he has 
chosen Israel to give especial care and training in the 
ways of Godliness, and all other nations are to melt 
away before them, and now see the fix they are in, and 
see how it has been all of the time since his selection 
was first made. 

It does not look as though Israel could have enjoyed 
one good night's rest, in all of these weary centuries, I 
think the way it has turned out with these Jews even 
down to this time, it would have been far better for 
Israel, if Abram had have said, when God first proffered 
his special services. No, I thank you God, but I think 
I had rather take my chance alone. 

I never could see wherein Saul was not as good as 
the best that have been chosen to lead Israel. But if 
this God is allwise and knew the end at the beginning, 
as theology teaches, why did he not select David as 
King of Israel at first. See 1 Sam. xxxi, what a destruc- 
tion to life and property to Israel by this mistake of 
God, as a fulfillment of Samuel's prophecy through this 
woman of En-dor. It seems at this crisis, when Saul 
inquired of the Lord the Lord answered him not by 
any of the means that they had been in the habit of 
employing. 

Now this was not kind of God, nor does it accord 
with what we are taught in the Catechism " to ask and 
ye shall receive." Because this was not Saul alone, but 
all Israel must suffer. It certainly does seem to our 
finite minds, that God should have said to Saul, Saul I 
have erred in judgment, in that you were tall, but now 
you go and tell David to take your place as soon as 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

possible, and then I will tell him what to do. Saul 
had offended God once upon a time when things looked 
dark and the way uncertain, by making a burnt offering 
and invoking Divine aid with prayer: so in this Saul 
was barred. None can gainsay but he was in a great 
strait, and it seems to him, that this is his dernier 
resort to see if possible there was one remaining that 
had a familiar spirit. 

CHAPTER XVII 

I did not expect in this part of my work to say any- 
thing of Spiritualism: but find it necessary at this 
time to give a definition or two. Now the great major- 
ity of people to-day have but a vague idea of what is 
meant by a familiar spirit. The impression obtained 
by Ecclesiasticism, is that such persons are in league 
with the Devil, or the Power of darkness, and as our 
Statute law does not permit of having them dispatched, 
they should be shunned and avoided as bad and danger- 
ous ! Now, my friends, this is misleading and wrong. 
For example, suppose you have a friend here in earth- 
life that you think much of, and in company with much 
of the time, and you become familiar with her or him. 
In this case you would be familiar with each other, 
there could be nothing evinced here that either of you 
were bad. And if perchance this friend passes this 
stage of life, and by a law not generally believed or 
understood you find that you can still hold converse 
with this friend, there need be no impropriety in calling 
him or her your familiar spirit, or need it imply that he 
or she must needs be bad or evil. 

Now to those who believe the Bible, you are forced 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 203 

to believe that those in the flesh have held communion 
with those who have lived and passed to another sphere 
of existence, as in the case of Christ with Peter, James 
and John, who held converse with Moses and Elias on 
the mount, and of Saul of Tarsus on his way to Damas- 
cus when he conversed with Christ. There are other 
cases which might be cited. This woman of En-dor 
might be included. You do not think these communi- 
cations from spirits, that were bad. Then I would ask, 
why are we to believe such things impossible to-day, 
or that it is of evil. 

Now let us consider the character of this woman of 
En-dor. 

When Saul came to her in the night incognito with 
these two, the account shows plainly, that she was in 
possession of this knowledge, of how the ones of her 
class had been destroyed throughout all Israel. And 
when Saul came in disguise, with two, at midnight she 
could not have a rational hope but that they were 
seeking to take her life. So when they make their 
business known, she doubts, and tells them what Saul 
has done, and that they were laying a snare that she 
might meet the same fate. But we will not suppose but 
she was a woman of intelligence and quickly discovered 
that his trouble was more serious than securing her 
conviction and death. Saul swears that she shall not 
be punished for this thing. Then she wanted to know 
whom he wanted called up. He said bring me up 
Samuel. 

And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a 
loud voice ! And asked Saul why he had deceived her ! 
for he was Saul! 

Now in the first place what right have we to call this 



204 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

woman of En-dor a witch. She is not mentioned in 
the Scripture in a single instance as being any other 
than a woman. So we will regard her as a woman. 
It appears that when this woman saw Samuel it was 
immmediately made known to her, that this was Saul. 
Can we reasonably doubt but this was made known to 
her by Samuel himself? 

But this is not the great question. The great and 
all absorbing question is, and one that must interest us 
all, was it Samuel. The Scripture says plainly and 
pointedly it was Samuel. Nor does it leave us a chance 
to raise a question. And to take a negative view is 
to pervert, misconstrue and contradict the Scripture. 
Again Samuel identifies himself to Saul to that extent, 
that he is entirely overcome by the proof, and falls 
prostrate upon the ground, when he Samuel, refers him, 
to what he had told him before his death: How that 
God had departed from him. Had rent the kingdom 
out of his hand and given it to his neighbor, even to 
David. Another thing which may be offered in evi- 
dence, that this was Samuel, that this prophecy spoken 
through this woman was fulfilled to the letter. Saul 
and his sons and his whole army were slain on the 
following day. (See 1 Sam. xxxi.) 

But notwithstanding all of the evidence that this 
was Samuel, Orthodox churchanity is unanimous in 
its denunciation of this woman, and proclaim from the 
pulpit and press that she was a witch and in league 
with Satan, and that Samuel was a hallucination. What 
earthly right has a Bible believer to lay before his 
flock such pabulum as this? And if the present-day 
theologian would wish to impress his followers that 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 205 

man survives the change called death, why should he 
wish to pervert this part of the Scripture, relating to 
the woman of En-dor and Samuel. Again leaving the 
churches and creeds out of the question, what can there 
be in this account to which the common worldling should 
object? Is this a thing to which our minds should re- 
volt, that we are here taught, that though Samuel was 
what we call dead, that he still lived, and still could 
be heard from? I can certainly see nothing in this 
unpleasant to believe, for if Samuel survives this 
change, there is no reason to assume that this law is 
not universal, and that we may not all expect a con- 
tinued existence of life beyond the grave. This I 
expect to prove. 

Now let us consider the character of this woman of 
En-dor. There is not perhaps a character on the 
Scriptural record that has been slandered and maligned 
and misrepresented, and held up as an object of con- 
tempt, as has this woman of En-dor. If Saul could 
have been informed against her, she would have went 
the way of those whom Saul had put away. But by 
chance she had been overlooked and is here called upon 
to act in her capacity under these peculiar conditions, 
which are enough to stir one's heart to pity. While we 
are taught by Orthodoxy, that this woman was in 
league with the Devil, and was producing this hal- 
lucination through his Satanic Majesty, let us study 
her character and see how it compares with the Chris- 
tian's standard. Christ tells us to love our enemies. 
This we know is incompatible to human nature : but we 
can make use of humanity under all circumstances, if 
we will cultivate and are in possession of it. When this 



206 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

woman discovers this man to be Saul, and is in full 
knowledge of the terrible crime he has committed, 
whether through ignorance or bigotry, this does not 
mitigate crime nor exonerate the perpetrator from 
suffering its consequences. This is not what theology 
teaches to her pupils : but let us reason together. In 
our Civil Code, among the first lessons is this: "Igno- 
rance of the law excuses no man." This is palpable and 
plain: because if this were not so this would leave a 
loophole through which every rogue could crawl. You 
will find this holds true in regard to natural law as 
well. You cannot through ignorance put your hand 
into the fire or drink poison, in short you cannot violate 
the natural law without suffering the consequence. 
Then what reason have we to think that we will be 
immune from punishment if we violate the moral law. 
Just consider what superstition and ignorance can lead 
to, and then expect to be ushered through the gates of 
Paradise. This is a thing, dear friends, that if you 
have learned you will have to unlearn, and sometimes 
your ignorance costs you more than I can tell. 

When Saul came to this woman, and she saw that he 
was sore troubled she said unto him, " Behold thine 
handmaid hath obeyed thy voice, and have put my life 
into my hand, and have hearkened unto thy words which 
thou spakest unto me." She then insisted that he must 
have something to eat, as she became informed that he 
had not eaten anything the day previous nor till then. 
So she provided the best she had out of pity for this 
poor wretch, that he might have strength to go his 
way. Could any follower of the lamb have done more? 

This woman acted upon the impulse of her innate 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 207 

nature. She expected no reward from Israel's God, nor 
from Saul, unless perchance if he got himself delivered 
from this immediate trouble, he might then turn his 
attention to this duty and have her put to death! 

Readers, while Priestcraft and Ecclesiasticism can 
make you believe that this monstrosity held up before 
you from the pulpit is the highest ruling power, and is 
the author of this plan of salvation, or what would 
express it — more properly — I should say — this plan of 
damnation, because from the account pretty much all 
seem to be damned. While they can make you believe 
this, and that this woman of En-dor and the class to 
which she belongs, and that modern Spiritualism and 
all it stands for, is of the Devil and must be shunned, as 
the power that is sure to drag you down to hell ! while 
they can make you believe all this, they are sure to 
hold their job. This God of the Bibb bases his claims 
of Godship upon his miracles. 

Now I will postulate, that there is no God that is 
not doing business on borrowed capital that need be 
resorting to and performing these strange freaks to 
hold his job. As the world advances in knowledge 
miracles gradually disappear. 

If this God in those early days thought miracles so 
necessary to prove himself, why has he thrown up this 
plan of procedure? 'Tis evident infidelity is on the in- 
crease: that advanced thought and the higher criticism 
rejects the orthodox claims of the Bible. If these are 
wrong, and the orthodox claims correct, why should 
not some beautifully planned miracle be interposed at 
this juncture by the Almighty in public, and in a way 
that all who run might read. It would seem that an 



208 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

allwise God, with this Bible God-given, with such a 
penalty for unbelief affixed, should blazon high in the 
vault of heaven these words, or words to this effect and 
let them remain there till the end of time. 

" The Bible is infallible." A miracle like this would 
be a revelation : while the miracles recorded in the Bible 
are no revelation whatever. They are entirely without 
authenticity, they are wholly unreasonable; they are 
not pleasant to believe nor do I believe them. For ex- 
ample, the miracle of the deluge — this you may say was 
a free public exhibition, but what militates against this 
is that all of the world were destroyed in the working 
of this miracle, but Noah and his family, and they may 
not have been strictly truthful. Then again the Red 
Sea miracle is beclouded with doubt in the same way: 
here the Egyptians were all destroyed, and we have 
only the Israelites for this miracle, and as the Jews 
are not considered above mediocrity for truth and ver- 
acity in our day so why are we bound to believe them 
then. 

A revelation of whatever nature or however wonder- 
ful or important to mankind, and then substantiated by 
a blood-curdling miracle, can be a revelation only to 
those to whom this revelation and this collateral proof 
or miracle is given: that is to those who are eye wit- 
nesses. To the rest of the world it is only hearsay, and 
they must use their reason, and good judgment taking 
all of the probabilities pro and con into consideration 
whether or not they are justified in believing. 

From this definition, and there is no other correct 
one: this Bible loses its place as a revelation, and 
simply takes its place as an aggregation of tremen- 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 209 

dous stories which blind faith tells us we must be- 
lieve. 

Now let me ask blind faith to just sit up for a little 
time and take notice of a few things. 

I would here call your attention to two miracles that 
you may see how conditions are changed to make them 
fit the miracle. 

Now when Israel declared for a king, God was dis- 
pleased, and jealous because he thought he had done 
some good strokes of management, and he complained 
to Samuel : but finally a compromise was agreed upon. 
See 1 Sam. xii. 14-16, " If ye will fear the Lord and 
serve him, and obey his voice, and not rebel against the 
commandment of the Lord; Then shall both ye and also 
the king that reigneth over you continue following the 
Lord your God. But if ye will not obey the voice of the 
Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord; 
then shall the hand of the Lord be against you as it 
was against your fathers. Now therefore stand and 
see the great thing, which the Lord will do before your 
eyes." 

Now Samuel calls their attention to the fact that it 
is time of wheat hearvest. This is represented as being 
a rainless period. So that a thunder storm at this time 
would pass for a very impressive miracle, especially 
if it came at Samuel's call. (18.) "So Samuel called 
unto the Lord and the Lord sent thunder and rain that 
day; and all the people greatly feared the Lord and 
Samuel." 

God's happiest moments seem to be when he has his 
chosen trembling with fear. 

Now here is recorded another miracle which makes 



210 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

this above named one void, and of no effect or if the 
one is true the other must be from the conditions false 
and for my part I joyfully- reject them both. 

In order to have a miracle wrought when the children 
of Israel crossed the Jordan, it is necessary to have a 
flood in the river, if it was as dry as Samuel represents 
it to be at the time of harvest they could have walked 
over on the stones without wetting their feet. 

But here to have a miracle sufficient for the people's 
needs, it becomes necessary to have a flood in the Jor- 
dan at the time of harvest. See Joshua iii. 15, M And 
as they that bare the ark were come unto Jordan, and 
the feet of the priests that bare the ark were dipped in 
the brim of the water, for Jordan overfloweth all his 
banks all the time of harvest." 

So you see in this case there must needs have been 
copious rains in time of harvest to have the River Jor- 
dan overflowing its banks. (17.) " And the priests that 
bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord, stood firmly 
on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the 
Israelites passed over on dry ground" 

Dear friends if this Bible is true and these miracles 
all facts, we might as well prepare for the worst: be- 
cause if we should reach heaven, a few of us with this 
fickle God to serve and please we could not count on it 
with any degree of certainty, and our minds would be in 
a constant state of unrest, for our heaven would be at 
any time liable to turn out like the great promise made 
to Israel in the wilderness when he sent the quails. 

No dear reader, the Infinite does not deal in miracles. 
His law is immutable, unchangeable; we can count on 
the sun's rising at his appointed time, and it will never 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 211 

be stayed in its course, for one race to annhilate another 
— Had the Bible makers have had a better knowledge of 
astronomy, they could have presented this miracle in 
better shape, for the present age, by saying that the 
earth was stopped in its diurnal revolution, instead of 
staying the sun. I do not pretend but there is pheno- 
mena which to those not having a proper knowledge 
might ascribe to miracle, but this is the working out of 
natural law which in time we hope will be better under- 
stood. 

It does not seem as if the Bible needed any more 
bombarding to relegate it where it belongs in the mind 
of intelligent mankind. But you have so long been 
taught to believe that deftly hidden in this Old Testa- 
ment Scripture, or the Jews' Bible are the prophecies 
and promises, that point out unmistakably the Christ 
of the New Testament that was to come. And here is 
where the greatest deception lies. David is also held 
up as being a man after God's own heart, and im- 
maculate in every particular except in the matter of 
Uriah. 

Now I expect to prove that these books called 
prophecies have no more reference or thought of the 
Christ of the New Testament, than they do of Wash- 
ington or Lincoln. But there are a few things I yet 
wish to say that properly precede the prophecies. 

We will now make a brief examination of David's rec- 
ord. David at any later period of the world than that 
of Bible making, would be called a usurper. But we 
will let this pass. The thing about David that makes 
him particularly interesting to our work, is that Christ, 
the Savior of mankind is "born of David's line," as 



212 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

the beautful Christmas carol puts it, and we have all 
been told and taught much about Christ being of the 
lineage of Jesse and David. But when the Papal Priest- 
hood put her loving arms around Christianity, Jesse 
and David were knocked clean out of the reckoning: 
because it then became necessary that Christ become 
sired by the Holy Ghost — one of the Holy Trinity — 
and as they do not pretend to claim that the virgin 
Mary was in any way closely related to David, and as 
the Jews had practiced marrying in other tribes con- 
tinually — though God forbade it — and as they had 
practiced taking captive maidens from the time they 
were in the wilderness, down to the time of the Babylon- 
ish Captivity for their own use, I do not see how there 
can be any propinquity of relationship or how we can 
hope that Christ can have much of Abraham's or 
David's blood in his veins. 

But despite these glaring facts the vicar will con- 
tinue to impress us that David is Christ's grand- 
father ! 

Predicating this to be a fact let us take a cursory 
survey of some of the salient points in David's history. 
David did not belong to the school of St. Paul, he did 
not believe in celibacy, he wanted a few wives, and we 
will discover the means he employed to secure some of 
them. David was drawn by the law of affinity toward 
Saul's daughters, notwithstanding Saul had drove a 
javelin at him several times with intent to kill, still he 
loved Saul's daughters. The eldest had been promised 
to David, but he was disappointed in this love affair for 
she was given to another. 

But Michal, Saul's second daughter, loved David, 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 91$ 

and David embraces this opportunity — and Michal also 
we have a right to assume — and the terms of negotia- 
tion were arranged with Saul. Saul requires from 
David's hand, one hundred foreskins of the Philistines. 
See 1 Sam. xviii. 27, Wherefore David arose and went 
he and his men and slew of the Philistines ; and David 
brought their foreskins, and they gave them in full tale 
to the king, that he might be the king's son-in-law. And 
Saul gave him, Michal, his daughter to wife. 

Should we not strain things to make it appear that 
David and Christ are kin? 

Now observe the manner in which David secures 
wife No. % See 1 Sam. xxv. It should be remembered 
that David was in hiding at this time, for Saul's anger 
had reached the murder point, because the women 
danced and sung. " Saul hath % slain his thousands, but 
David hath slain his ten thousands" and this chapter 
finds him down in the wilderness of Paran. 

There was a man whose possessions were in Carmel. 
This man, we infer from the account, was a man of 
business, he had three thousand sheep and a thousand 
goats. It was at the time of sheep-shearing. This 
man's name was Nabal. David was short of rations 
and sends ten young men to commune with Nabal, and 
make it appear that David and his force had been extra 
good, in that they had not plundered his flocks, and 
now David wanted pay in provisions and supplies, as 
a reward of merit. Nabal answers in a rather off-hand 
manner, that he knew nothing of David nor had he 
heard of his good behavior: that it was common for 
servants to break away from their masters and make 
great pretentions, and that he hardly thought he was 



2U PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

under obligations to give what he had provided for his 
shearers to David and his men. 

Now it is apparent to anyone reading this account 
that Nabal made just the reply that David wanted. 
This gave David a pretext to plunder his herds and as- 
sassinate Nabal and his men. This Nabal had a wife 
by the name of Abigail 3, she was a woman of good 
understanding and of a beautiful countenance: but the 
man was churlish and evil in his doings and he was of 
the house of Calib. So you see this was no Philistine 
that David had these designs upon, Calib was one of 
the twain who went arm in arm with Joshua, whose 
integrity of heart and righteousness before God per- 
mitted him to endure from the transit of the Red Sea 
through all of the vicissitudes of the wilderness to the 
promised land. But see 12-13, (So David's young men 
turned their way and went again, and came and told 
him all those sayings. And David said unto his men, 
gird ye on every man his sword; and they girded on 
every man his sword; and David girded on his sword: 
and there went up after David about four hundred, 
and two hundred abode with the stuff. While David 
was mobilizing his force to appropriate Nabal's live 
stock and put Nabal and his shearers at rest ; Abigail 
was informed of the answer that Nabal — her husband — 
had made, and with womanly sagacity made acute by 
the customs of the age, prepared a goodly present and 
apprehended David at the head of his army, and framed 
the best apology that the circumstances would admit 
of, and by womanly tact and good judgment she dis- 
suaded David from carrying out his designs. 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 215 



CHAPTER XVIII 

David then said to Abigail. See 32-34, " Blessed be 
the Lord God of Israel which sent thee this day to meet 
Tne. For in very deed as the Lord, God of Israel 
liveth, which hath kept me back from hurting thee, ex- 
cept thou hadst hasted and come to meet me," Surely 
there had not been unto Nabal anything by the morn- 
ing light, anything alive is what is meant. We cannot 
use the language that is here used. David received her 
present and returned to headquarters, and Abigail re- 
turned home, and found Nabal her husband holding 
high carnival and was excessively drunk ; so drunk that 
she did not deem it prudent to inform him that night, 
but when morning came she informed him of what his 
household had escaped by her intervention, the shock 
seems to have produced apoplexy or paralysis or 
something of that nature, so that life exterminated at 
the expiration of about ten days. 

David was quick to discover that God has wrought 
this all for his glory, and beautiful Abigail was at 
once uppermost in his mind. Ambassadors were at once 
dispatched to inform her of her good fortune and 
Abigail jumps into the chance you bet. Here is the 
Bible for it. (41.) " And she arose, and bowed herself 
on her face to the earth, and said, Behold let thine 
handmaid be a servant to wash the feet of the servants 
of my Lord. And Abigail hasted, and arose, and rode 
upon an ass, with five damsels of her 9 s that went after 
her; and she went after the messengers of David and 
became his wife. 9 * 

Now, dear friends, please lay aside the glamor by 



216 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

which time encircles this history and the halo of 
sanctity, and consider this an occurrence of to-day, and 
ask yourself, Is there joy and comfort in the belief, 
That David is Christ's grandfather. 

In verse forty-three of this same chapter xxv, is the 
account of his marrying wife No. 3. She must have 
been one of Abigail's damsels; the Scripture does not 
make it plain. 

The position that David has always held in Christen- 
dom, makes it necessary to give this character a some- 
what fair " expose " so will invite your attention to 
some history recorded in 1 Sam. xxviii. Now it would 
look as though the old animosity of Saul toward David 
was healed in the account of the preceding chapter 
where it was made so plain to Saul that his son-in-law 
David had had a most favorable opportunity of killing 
him when he was asleep in the trench with his spear 
stuck in the ground close to his bolster ; and David had 
carried away his spear without farther harm to Saul, 
while Saul had drove his javelin at David upon several 
occasions, with murder outlined upon his countenance, 
and David had resisted from retaliation although he 
had held several most favorable opportunities ; this we 
are not taught was from any love David had for Saul, 
but from the fact that Saul is God's anointed. 

When all this comes home to Saul, he expresses his 
gratitude, and promises that hostilities shall cease. See 
1 Sam. xxvi. 21, " Then, said Saul, I have sinned; re- 
turn my son David, for I will no more do thee harm; 
because my soul was precious in thine eyes this day; be- 
hold I have played the fool and have erred exceed- 
ingly" 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 217 

While Saul was projecting his javelin at him with 
all the force he could muster, David seems to rather 
enjoy dodging, and maneuvering in his cunning way, 
to prove to Saul what advantages he had held, and still 
withheld ; but when Saul makes his apology and declares 
that the feud is at an end; then it is that David's 
suspicions are aroused to the point of absconding. 
Where does he go ? He moves with his six hundred men 
and his two last acquired wives — Michal, his first wife, 
Saul had recalled and given to Phalti, the son of Laish, 
so she was not with him for a time — into the coasts of 
the Philistines, Israel's dead-list enemy. David holds 
a parley with Achish the king, makes oath of allegiance 
to the Philistines, and sues the king for a town in hia 
kingdom wherein to dwell. Achish cedes to him Ziklag, 
that day. Note verse six, " Wherefore Ziklag per- 
taineth unto the Kings of Judah unto this day." 
Reader just consider who is writing this Scripture, and 
where this oft repeated expression " unto this day " is 
supposed to carry us to? 

Let us see what David's first performance is, in this 
his last settlement. He dwells among the Philistines 
one year and four months. He plans a raid among 
some tribes said to be old inhabitants of the land among 
them the Amelekites. (9.) " And he and his men smote 
the land, and left neither man nor woman alive, and 
took away the sheep, and the oxen, and the asses, and 
the camels, and the apparel, and returned, and came to 
Achish." 

David does just what Saul did, for which Saul lost 
prestige with God, in keeping the sheep and cattle 
alive and possessing them ; but in this case God seems 



218 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

well pleased. Sagacious David kills every man, woman 
and child, so they cannot inform against him. 

The king asks David whether he had made a road 
that day. Quick witted David tells him against the 
South of Judah and some other tribes of the family 
of Israel. 

Here this man David, in whom God takes supreme 
delight — except in the little matter of Uriah the Hittite 
— has committed one of the most dastardly deeds that 
a totally depraved barbarian could commit, and lies to 
Achish the king with all the effrontery of a bronze 
statue. Achish believes David and is well pleased, and 
thinks that David has previously made Israel to utterly 
abhor him, and will therefore be a valuable acquisition 
to him forever. 

Please note this carefully because it is David's char- 
acter we are after now. It would seem as though this 
were already enough, but he has been extolled for about 
three thousand years as being perfect — with but one 
flaw — and the best among the God-fearing men in the 
vista of Messianic genealogy, and it behooves to go a 
little slow, that we may somewhat understand. We 
can only give a summary of the salient points, there is 
too much to give in full detail. Read your Bible. 

We will now turn to where David is made king of 
Israel. You should read this history, there are so many 
things that I must of necessity omit, however much I 
may wish to dilate upon them. 

After Saul's death there comes a messenger to in- 
form David at Ziklag in the country of the Philistines. 
Here are two different stories relating how Saul came 
to his end. In the last chapter of (1 Sam.) it says 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 219 

Saul purposely fell upon his own sword to avoid falling 
into the hands of the uncircumcised Philistines. This 
messenger tells David that he happened by chance upon 
Mount Gilboa, that Saul had leaned upon his spear, 
but it had not been effectual and he, Saul, asked this 
messenger who he was, he told him he was an Amele- 
kite, but Saul implored him to finish the work, which the 
messenger owns he did. When this messenger tells all 
to David, David discovers a sin in this Amelekite for 
killing the Lord's anointed, and tells one of his young 
men to fall upon him and he smote him that he died. 

Now we will turn to 9, Sam. v. 13. The reader will 
observe that Samuel's death is recorded in 1 Sam. xxv. 
1, but his pen continues writing right on. 

Here in 2 Sam. v. 13, 'tis recorded, " And David 
took him more concubines and wives out of Jerusalem 
after he was come from Hebron," but the text does not 
inform how many. 

In verse fourteen of this same chapter is recorded 
sons which are born to him, and among those named is 
Solomon. Now Solomon the record says is the son of 
Bath-sheba, Uriah's wife, and the episode or circum- 
stances which brings Solomon into existence has not 
taken place, nor did it until ten years later according 
to Biblical chronology. I will call your attention to 
this a little later. 

We will now take a hasty look at a portion of the 
Scripture recorded in £ Sam. vi. It seems, the time had 
arrived for moving the ark of God to the tabernacle 
where David abode at Jerusalem. He proceeds with a 
procession of thirty thousand men, all the chosen men 
of Israel. It does not matter how far this ark is to be 



220 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

moved, we are not told. They had built them a bran 
new cart right up-to-date, and were getting along ex- 
ceedingly. They had a band with all manner of instru- 
ments, and David we have a right to infer was leader 
of this band, but we hardly think he had his harp of 
solemn sound on this occasion, but from the sequel it 
seems it would have been better had he have had it. 
From the account they were playing ragtime and were 
marching too fast for the safety of the ark on the ox- 
cart where the road was rough, past Nachon's threshing 
floor where it seems it came near toppling over, and 
Uzzah concerned for the safety of this ark of God put 
forth his hand to steady it, verse seven, " And the 
anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and God 
smote him thus for his error; and there he died by the 
ark of God." Now, dear friends, what manner of a 
Bible lesson have we here, and how are we to know what 
may please or displease Israel's God or the Christian's 
father God? 

What in the name of Reason can the theologian dis- 
cover here to justify an act like this, where one thinks 
he is doing God's holy will? I have studied the Scrip- 
ture pretty thoroughly, but have never discovered one 
word where God has forbidden touching the ark ! And 
to strike Uzzah dead for trying to preserve it from 
harm, I should say is enough to set a Christian to 
thinking that there must be a screw loose somewhere 
in this theological machinery. 

It seems that David himself here thinks this God 
problem a hard one, and he concludes to take time to 
consider. He is afraid of this mysterious chest him- 
self. So he left it on the road, at the house of a man 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 221 

by the name of Obed-Edom. It remained there three 
months, and such a wave of prosperity struck the plan- 
tation of Obed-Edom that David concludes, By gra- 
cious ! he will try and get it into his tabernacle if it 
is dangerous to handle. " So David went and brought 
up the ark of God." But there has to be great cau- 
tion and tact employed at this time to avoid God's 
displeasure. So after they had moved the ark the first 
six paces, "David makes an offering of oxen and fat- 
lings." This being done, David concludes that some 
good dancing may be acceptable to God while this ark 
is in transit, and David decides to do this himself. 

I suppose, readers, we have never seen any right 
down dancing. The Scripture tells us he danced with 
all his might: and this was done while he was nude! 
Picture it: think of it! We are not advised where the 
rest of David's wives were, but the Scripture tells us 
(2 Sam. vi. 16), "And as the ark of the Lord came 
into the city of David" Michal, Saul's daughter, looked 
through a window, and saw King David leaping and 
dancing before the Lord; and she despised him in her 
heart. 

David is so thankful when he gets the ark in place 
that he shells out some of his spoil. " He gives all 
Israel a piece of meat, a loaf of bread and a flagon 
of wine;" this seems to be an uncertain quantity, but 
we have a right to assume there was bread and meat 
enough for a square meal, and wine enough to make 
them all merry. 

When he gets through with this donation to his sub- 
jects, he turns his attention to his household with 
showers of blessing. Michal, his first wife, came out 



222 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

to meet her king and free her mind. Here is the ac- 
count per Scripture. Verse 20 : " How glorious was 
the King of Israel to-day, who uncovered himself to- 
day in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as 
one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself " 
Verse 21 : " And David said unto Michal, It was be- 
fore the Lord, which chose me before thy father, and 
before all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people 
of the Lord, over Israel: therefore will I play before 
the Lord." Verse 22: "And I will yet be more vile 
than thus, and will be base in mine own sight: and of 
the maidservants which thou hast spoken of, of them 
I shall be had in honour." Ver^e 23 : " Therefore Mi- 
chal had no child unto the day of her death." 

What better can we say to this than, Great is the 
mystery of Godliness! Who but godly David could 
have guessed what was required to keep God in good 
humor while this ark was being moved! And after 
studying this Scripture lesson, what argument can the 
Christian produce derogatory to dancing, even though 
'tis done in scant apparel. 

Michal, David's first wife, seems to be a woman who 
lived in advance of the age; she seems to have had 
the elements of a lady. Is she a pure fiction, or did she 
have an existence? This is impossible to know. My 
best judgment is she is a myth. The story of God's 
judgment for her reproaching David is not worth 
speaking of; it is too stale. It is internally evident 
that these books of Samuel are far-fetched and rest 
on tradition and fable. 

This ark, which is represented as a chest in which 
God was kept, has some resemblance and leads one to 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

think at times, especially in this case of Uzzah, that 
it may have been an electric battery. That they had 
stumbled on to this mysterious, unponderable force or 
substance, which is so much employed at this time, and 
so little known of then; that these ancients from cer- 
tain signs of attraction and repulsion used this for 
divination and called this God. This being the case 
Uzzah put his hands upon it where it was not properly 
insulated and received an overcharge. 

The miracles of the Scripture are the easiest part 
to explain; they properly fall under two heads: (1) 
Natural law not understood; (2) Munchausen or pure 
fabrication. 

We will now turn the pages of this Bible till we 
come to 2 Sam. xi. 1 : " And it came to pass, after the 
year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to 
battle, that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, 
and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Am- 
mon, and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried still at 
Jerusalem." Here is recorded an incident in David's 
history that is more closely allied to human nature in 
modern time than most of the Bible stories. 

This chapter starts off in a vague kind of way : but 
what is meant is that the time had arrived, and David 
has sent his chieftains and their forces to wage war 
with most anything they ran against. Everything 
outside of Israel was a common enemy, and when not, 
this civil strife filled up the interregnum. David tarries 
at Jerusalem. It seems David was no exception to the 
rule, "Uneasy rests the head that wears the crown." 
And he arose from his bed after retiring, and walked 
out upon the roof of his house; and from this view- 



224 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

point he saw a woman washing herself, or, in modern 
parlance, was taking a sponge bath; and the woman 
was very beautiful to look upon. 

David here acts like a man of the world. His 
thoughts do not in the least seem to be drawn Godward, 
at least toward any god but the goddess Venus. He 
sends and makes inquiry after this woman. He finds 
her to be the wife of one of his private soldiers, Uriah 
the Hittite. This woman whom David is so drawn to- 
ward bears the name of Bathsheba. David, whose word 
is law, sends messengers to bring her to his house. She 
has no voice or choice in this matter, no more than 
though she were a thing devoid of thought. 

But in process of time she sends and informs David 
that she is with child by him. David sends to Joab, 
his chief in command, and says, " Send to me Uriah 
the Hittite." Uriah, with mind divided 'twixt hope and 
fear, approaches this man who rules by right divine. 
David makes inquiry how Joab did, and how the people 
did, and how the war prospered, what the prospects 
and probabilities were, and how he thought certain bat- 
tles might terminate, etc. : questions meant to deceive 
Uriah, to flatter him and make him think that for some 
hidden cause he has become a favorite to the King. 
David then tells him to go to his house, wash his feet 
and have a good night's rest and visit with his wife, 
and there followed him a mess of meat from the King. 
Uriah misunderstands ; he feels now that news has 
reached the King that he is a soldier worthy of pro- 
motion ; his hopes are high with what has taken place, 
and now he thinks he must make no mistake to lower his 
estimation in the appreciation of his King. So Uriah 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 225 

slept at the door of the King's house with the serv- 
ants of the King, and went not down to his house. 
Verse 10: "And when they had told David, saying 
Uriah went not down to his house: David said unto 
Uriah, Camest not thou from thy journey, why didst 
thou then not go down unto thy house? " 

Verse 11: "And Uriah said unto David: The ark, 
and Israel, and Judah abide in tents; and my lord Joab 
and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open 
fields; shall I then go into my house, to eat and drink, 
and lie with my wife? as thou lives t and as thy soul 
liveth I will not do this thing" 

Verse 12 : " And David said to Uriah, tarry here to- 
day also, and to-morrow I will let thee depart. So 
Uriah abode in Jerusalem that day and the morrow." 

Verse 13: "And when David had called him, he did 
eat and drink before him; and he made him drunk; and 
at even he went out to lie on his bed with the servants 
of his lord, but went not down to his house." 

Verse 14 : " And it came to pass in the morning, 
that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the 
hand of Uriah" 

Verse 15 : " And he wrote in the letter, saying, Set 
ye Uriah in the forefront of the battle, and retire ye 
from him, that he may be smitten, and die." 

The plan worked well: Joab does not ask a question 
or even seem to commune with himself to the contrary, 
but that the King's mandate is divine. Uriah feels that 
he has found favor with the King, joyfully and hope- 
fully carries this message to Joab, little thinking that 
it is his own death warrant. 

Joab reconnoiters the ramparts of the enemy's city; 



226 PROGRESSIVE AGE> OF REASON 

the plans of procedure are laid. Uriah is placed in a 
position where Joab knew the valiant men of the city 
were; action begins, and the King's wishes are grati- 
fied: an arrow shot from the city wall speeds to its 
mark, and Uriah is slain ! 

Uriah's wife mourns for her husband, but at the end 
of her mourning David has her brought to his house 
and she is made an addition to his harem. David, up 
to date, has ten concubines that we know of ; we do not 
know how many more. And now he has four wives. 

David is held up before the world to-day by the dis- 
pensers of Christianity as a prototype of Christ. 

Reader, is it not glorious to contemplate? Should 
we not be thankful that we live in a land of Bibles? 

Among the mysteries of godliness contained in this 
Book, here is one more — the concluding sentence of this 
chapter: " But the thing that David had done dis- 
pleased the Lord." 

When Uzzah was smitten in his effort to save the 
ark, David was displeased ; and here in this case God is 
displeased. God and David mentally and morally seem 
to be on about the same plane. 

Now let us ruminate for a little time. These Israel- 
ites or Jews by the decree of destiny are scattered all 
over the earth; we all have an opportunity of seeing 
and knowing them and becoming acquainted with their 
characteristics. 

Morally or mentally, do they occupy a higher plane 
than do the gentiles of to-day? I am not putting this 
question to the Jew or to the Gentile; they may alike 
be biased. I am asking Truth and Justice to answer 
this question. It is evident from this Jewish history 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON ZTl 

that the Gentiles were far in advance of them in the 
arts and sciences in those primitive days, and as civil- 
ization advanced, their God, which they seem to have 
had caged in this ark, was a waning power, and if they, 
God's enemies — the Gentiles — had not have adopted him 
for selfish purposes he would have been defunct for 
thousands of years, as are the gentile Gods who were 
holding forth at this Bible-making period. 



CHAPTER XIX 

This I know is not the popular belief. I well under- 
stand the orthodox claim that everything that stands 
for our present civilization is owing to the Bible. So 
we will toil on. Let us further consider this thing 
that displeased God. Dear friends, when you read your 
Bible and become elated over the victories of these Jews 
and the power of God working with them, and your face 
glows with exultation, you should ever bear in mind 
that we are the people that all these wars were waged 
against, and if God's promises had been fulfilled, you 
could not to-day have an existence, unless it were in a 
state of the most abject slavery, our women debauched, 
and any of us killed at any time if we were not profit- 
able, because we would be their money. 

David ordered Uriah put in a dangerous place; of 
course he was doomed to be slain, unless God had taken 
the thing in hand, as he did for David when Saul was 
projecting his javelin at him. If God was displeased, 
as he was concerning himself all of the time with all 
of the affairs of Israel, why did he not whisper in 



£28 PROGRESSIVE AGEj OF REASON 

David's ear at this time? David here causes the death 
of one Jew. Think of what he did when he was among 
the Philistines. It was our people he was murdering 
then, with no regard to age or sex. Then God was 
pleased. Think of what he had in mind when Abigail 
met him and his four hundred. This man Nabal was 
of the house of Caleb, whose record was the highest 
among the Jews, whose household he planned to assas- 
sinate and all that pertained to him. 

We cannot take up the time farther directly with 
David. There is much more I would be pleased to say, 
but time and space forbids. There is one thing of 
which you may rest assured. David has been done no 
injustice by me: and as the Queen of Sheba once said 
of Solomon, "The half has never yet been told" of 
the dark and murderous deeds of this God-fearing, lech- 
erous, treacherous, misrepresented, overrated man 
David ! While I have promised not to take up the time 
farther with David, there is yet a thing or two that 
cannot be well omitted. I must ask you here to mark 
your place, take your Bible and carefully read and con- 
sider this Scripture lesson contained in 2 Sam. xxi. 1 
to 15. Then consider what an uncertain quantity is 
the Christians' Father God! And also consider what 
must have been the feelings of poor Michal, Saul's 
daughter, David's first wife, when she is informed what 
is to be the fate of her five adopted sons (she was de- 
nied children of her own, as you may remember), whom 
God and David decrees must be butchered that God's 
wrath may be appeased and prosperity restored. 

Again, please turn to 2 Sam. xxii. 21 to 25, and 
consider the magnitude of David's cheek. Moses' self- 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 229 

adulation pales to nothingness : " The Lord rewarded 
me according to my righteousness; according to the 
cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me. For 
I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wick- 
edly departed from my God. For all his judgments 
were before me: and as for his statutes, I did not de- 
part from them, I was also upright before him, and 
have kept myself from mine iniquity. Therefore the 
Lord hath recompensed me according to my righteous- 
ness; according to my cleanness in his eyesight" 
Christian friends, what do you think of that? 

We will now turn the kaleidoscope and have a change 
of scene. 'Tis said God moves in a mysterious way, and 
here is some Scripture which all must admit verifies this 
statement. % Sam. xxiv. 1 : " And again the anger 
of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved 
David against them to say 9 Go number Israel and 
Judah." 

Then turn to 1 Chron. xxi. 1: "And Satan stood 
up against Israel, and provoked David to number Is- 
rael" 

Now, these two texts both relate to the same thing 
in regard to circumstance, time, and place. 

I premise that you understand that Chronicles is a 
sort of rehash of the Scripture from Adam down to 
Ezra. What this is for I do not know. I have won- 
dered much. Perhaps some robed priest or high sal- 
aried divine might inform us — but what would that be 
worth? Now these two Scriptural statements under 
criticism differ essentially and must, to the inquiring 
mind, demand a clearing up. 



230 PROGRESSIVE AGE> OF REASON 

This makes the anger of the Lord and Satan in a 
normal condition synonymous. Now, in this infallible 
Book, then, are we to proceed upon this basis; and 
then must we return, retouch, and efface, to make our 
work fit these conditions, or shall we accept the propo- 
sition that this inerrant Bible contains some errors, 
and proceed? I think that the best way to solve the 
problem. 

Now, whether God or Devil that ordered it, let us 
consider what the order is. It is for David to number 
Israel and Judah. How could that be a sin? It had 
been done repeatedly; at least, they tell us how many 
there were upon several occasions. 

One of the books ascribed to Moses is called Num- 
bers, because Israel was here numbered. Now, if this 
God is not here trying to kick up a fuss, I would like 
to know what he was at? But it seems God wanted 
another high old time, to preserve a wholesome fear, 
which seems to be his chief delight ; so, as soon as the 
thing is done, God is after David. 

But here is a thing I must speak of in this connec- 
tion. Why should there be such a discrepancy in the 
figures in these two accounts of this enumeration since 
it is done at the same time by the same ruler? 

Joab seems to be the King's best all-'round man, 
and in Samuel the number of men that drew the sword 
were eight hundred thousand of Israel and of Judah 
five hundred thousand. Joab gives these numbers in 
both cases, and in Chronicles he gives the numbers, one 
million one hundred thousand of Israel, and four hun- 
dred and seventy thousand of Judah. A discrepancy 
of three hundred thousand men. 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 2S1 

If God had grumbled at this carelessness in putting 
this in his Word in this bungling manner, we might not 
wonder. 

But, however, this enumeration displeases God, and 
the vengeance God wreaks makes David himself expos- 
tulate. 

Nathan the Prophet got after David in the matter 
of Uriah. But Gad is the seer in this offense that 
makes God's will and wishes known. 

Gad tells David God has three ways in which to 
get square with him; he only expects to make use of 
but one; and he is going to give David his choice 
'twixt the three. 

Here is where God's mercy comes in, that we hear so 
much about. Here they are : Either three years fam- 
ine; or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, 
while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee; 
or three days the sword of the Lord, even the pestilence 
in the land and the angel of the Lord destroying 
throughout all the coasts of Israel. God here wants to 
impress David of his superior power; how in the three 
days he can do a destruction equal to the other named 
visitations in the length of time named. Gad gives 
David a hint that time is valuable and he must render 
his decision in regard to his choice now, so that he 
can inform the Lord, who is waiting for the answer. 

David says to Gad, I am in a great strait. It seems 
David would have been pleased to have had a little time 
in which to deliberate, but this was denied. So he does 
just what we are admonished to do, to trust himself to 
the mercy of God. If it were possible to select from 
this Bible a portion that sets God at the greatest dis- 



%&% PROGRESSIVE AGE. OF REASON 

count, and I were to do it, I should certainly have to 
tarry a long time here if I did not make this selection. 

Here it might look as though God were going to 
try David's faith as he did Abraham's in offering his 
own son. And when David concluded to rest on God's 
everlasting arm, and expressing faith in his great mer- 
cies, what does God do? " The Lord sends a pestilence 
and destroys seventy thousand men." Understand, dear 
friends, these are men; so we have a right to add to 
this list, of women and children, and still be conserva- 
tive, one hundred and forty thousand more, making a 
grand total of two hundred and ten thousand lives! 
And for what? For numbering Israel. 

We are here in America numbered every ten years 
by the United States government — if it was an offense 
then in the sight of God, why is it not so now? We 
are taught to pray to this same God. Do you sup- 
pose he was ever here in America? I think not. 

But was this God's wrath appeased here ? Oh, no ! 
See 1 Chron. xxi. 15 : " And God sent an angel unto 
Jerusalem to destroy it; and as he was destroying, the 
Lord beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said 
to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now 
thine hand." When you hear someone speaking derog- 
atory of God's mercy and loving kindness, just refer 
him to this text, and I guess you'll have him treed. 

See same chapter, verse 17. David says : " Is it not 
I that commanded the people to be numbered? even I 
it is that have sinned and done evil indeed; but as for 
these sheep, what have they done? Let thine hand, I 
pray thee, Lord my God, be on me, and on my 
father's house; but not on thy people, that they should 
be plagued" 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OP REASON 

Here is David endeavoring to teach God a primary 
lesson or two in moral ethics. What do you think of 
that? Just consider David's record when he was among 
the Philistines — in fine, his whole career — and then, 
here God has so outdone him that David belches forth 
his disgust. I said we would let David rest, but 
thought it necessary to follow his history thus much 
farther, not for the purpose of showing David's char- 
acter, but the character of Israel's God. 

This bit of Bible history, considered from all its 
phases, for perspicuity, is indeed impressive. Of what? 
That Israel's God is but a figment. 

In our courts of justice, where a case, though it may 
be of state-wide interest, comes before the judicial tri- 
bunal, and the verdict hinges upon the proof of a cer- 
tain thing, and there comes forward five or six and 
testify to it, declaring that they have no personal 
interest in the matter, though there are many more 
ready to come forward and testify to the same, the 
judge will say there is no need of taking up farther 
time, as there is nothing offered in evidence to the con- 
trary: the case may without further delay be sub- 
mitted to the jury. 

This is the way this Bible God question appeals to 
me: that the internal evidence is overwhelmingly 
against, while there is nothing upon which Intelligence 
and Reason can base the ghost of a claim for it. Nor 
can I see where there is a shadow of enjoyment in such 
belief. 

The remainder of the Old Scripture we must turn 
over rapidly, touching occasionally here and there. 



ZU PROGRESSIVE AGE, OF REASON 

But we must make a brief examination of the proph- 
ecies, for these are what have kept the Old Book afloat, 
and herein the greatest delusion lies. Here is a clip- 
ping that came to my hand but recently, I think from 
the Chicago Record-Herald, which gives us an oppor- 
tunity to get a peep behind the theological curtain. 
And it substantiates what I am trying tell: 

"Religion Not of Divine Origin — It Is Not from a 
God, Prof. Foster Says, But an Achievement of 
Man. 

" Chicago, Dec. 3, 1908. 

" George B. Foster, of the University of Chicago 
Divinity School, whose higher criticisms of the Bible 
have agitated orthodox Christianity, told the budding 
clergymen of the school to-day that religion was not 
of divine or miraculous origin. It is not a religion 
from a God, said he, but an achievement of man, who 
created his own gods in ancient times, in order that he 
might have them to help him in his defenselessness and 
ignorance; to aid him in conquering his foes, and to 
dispel the darkness of his future and the fear of death. 

" More and more people are giving up the idea that 
their religion is something handed down to them from 
a divine source. They are coming to see that their 
religion is just as good and better than if it had been 
given to them without the work of human agencies. 

"Consequently, religion is on a more rational basis, 
as people are cultivating it just as they cultivate 
music, language, science, and morality." 

Dear believer, what do you think of this ? Here is a 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 235 

professor of a divinity school who would knock the 
stuffing entirely out of your sacred thunder ! He tells 
what he believes to be the truth to these budding 
clergymen; but what are these clergymen going to 
preach and teach when they go abroad in the world to 
disseminate knowledge gained from these high places? 

Dear believer, you do not realize how you are de- 
ceived ! And what it costs you : not alone in material 
things, but your first stage of existence is spent in 
loading your mind with error which dwarfs your soul, 
and before true soul development can commence, you 
have all of this error to unlearn. Then consider how 
you are handicapped. Of course you may say that, if 
what I teach is true, there will be a long time to read- 
just mistakes and get things set right. The criminal 
might say the same when he has a ten-years' sentence 
passed upon him ; but could you think such paltry self- 
consolation as this wise? Certainly not; but this is 
just as wise as that answer would be to the above prop- 
osition. 

Now, before I wander too far from this episode of 
David numbering Israel, and this terrible punishment 
inflicted by God for doing what looks like so harmless 
a thing, and a thing perfectly consistent with good 
statesmanship, I will just offer an opinion as a com- 
mentary upon this bit of Scripture. 

Because, although I hold that this God is purely 
imaginary, yet I think he has been done great injus- 
tice here, in ascribing to him this terrible visitation 
where the offense is nothing. 

People who diligently read and search the Scripture, 



236 PROGRESSIVE AGEi OF REASON 

believing it to be what the clergy tells them, must from 
necessity become exceedingly superstitious. And when 
a calamity befalls a neighbor, they set themselves at 
work to discover the sin for which God has sent the 
punishment. I have heard God-fearing people talk 
these things over many times, and in most cases they 
could discover out the sin. And I freely confess that 
sometimes their reason would be about as rational as 
this of David numbering Israel. But if they could not 
discover a sin which they thought measured up to the 
extent of the punishment, then there was some hidden 
sin, " a skeleton in the closet," you know. 

A contagion has struck Israel at the time of David's 
reign. These people were utterly ignorant of all laws 
in regard to pathology, therapeutics, or of quarantin- 
ing, and from the account the decimation was horrify- 
ing, and after the plague had run its course and spent 
its fury, the priests and seers set themselves at work 
to discover the sin or cause, and it is: That David 
numbered Israel. 

We have now carried this hurried examination to the 
books called Kings. David retires from the stage of 
action, and his son Solomon, the wise, succeeds him to 
the throne. We cannot take but little time with Sol- 
omon, although the Sunday school teacher tells us he 
is the wisest man the world has ever known, which is 
just about as true as the rest of the Bible. 

His is a case of lust and dissipation run mad; and 
to teach childhood that this man is wise is a crime 
against morality and a slander upon humanity. 

His first act after his coronation shows him a fratri- 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 237 

cidal murderer, a liar, and a villain of the blackest 

type. # 

Here is King Solomon's first act after he ascends to 
the throne: It seems Adonijah, another of David's 
sons, had aspirations for the throne, and thought pos- 
session would be a strong point in his favor; but he 
failed in this, and the question of kingship was settled 
in Solomon's favor. And when Adonijah got hold of 
the horns of the altar, and implored his brother's mercy, 
which the King granted, upon promise of good be- 
havior, it looks as though there were a trace of hu- 
manity in King Solomon's heart. (See 1 Kings ii.) 

The gist of the story is this. Adonijah was older 
than Solomon and thought himself the rightful heir 
to the throne, but David and the power behind the 
throne — the priesthood — place Solomon thereon. 

It should be remembered that in David's house was 
a Jewess by the name of Abishag, selected and brought 
there to see if she could, in consequence of her radiant 
beauty, bring back to David his old-time vigor in this, 
his last sickness, by placing this pretty girl in bed 
with him. But all this could not restore nor save old, 
worn-out David from going the way of all flesh. This 
Hebrew girl after the death of David remained still 
at the house: and Adonijah thinks that if he is denied 
the throne, he should be allowed to placate the loss by 
having Abishag for a wife. It is not plain how King 
Solomon comes to own her, but thus it appears. 

So Adonijah employs Bathsheba, Solomon's mother 
— Uriah's wife — to make intercession for him. He as- 
sures her it is only a little thing he asks, and he will 
grant it. 



238 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

Bathsheba replies, Well, I will speak for thee unto 
the King. She goes before the King, the King grants 
her a hearing. She says she desires a small petition, 
and she prayed he would not say her nay. " The King 
says, Ask on, my mother, for I will not say thee nay." 
And she said, "Let Abishag the Shunammite be given 
to Adonijah thy brother to wife." 

Solomon, instead of granting this favor, or civilly 
refusing, which would have been only to have lied to 
his mother, but no, he sends an executioner and has 
him murdered for simply asking this favor. It seems 
Adonijah could not have had much acquaintance with 
his brother or he would not have asked him for a 
woman. Here is a sample of King Solomon's character, 
and this act seems to meet God's approbation. 

We cannot take up much time with King Solomon. 
His temple reminds one of Aladdin's palace, and the one 
is no doubt as true as the other. The city of Jeru- 
salem has been explored and probed, and excavations 
have been made in every part of the city, to see if 
there could be a foundation stone of this marvelous 
temple found, but to no avail. The Sultan has granted 
these explorers every privilege possible until they 
wanted to excavate under his temple, but here he drew 
the line. It is conceded by our best scholars that Sol- 
omon's temple belongs to the category of myths and 
never had an existence only in the imagination ; as does 
the tabernacle, with its tons of gold and silver and ma- 
terial which to have moved would require a modern 
freight train of goodly length. The fact is, this tem- 
ple is chained to all of these myths — Joshua and the 
sun, Jonah and the whale, the plagues of Egypt, the 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 239 

dividing of the waters of the Red Sea, and a thousand 
and one other happenings that never happened. 

It is exceedingly impressive to look King Solomon's 
record over. In the early part of his career, God ap- 
peared to him and asked him what he should give 
him. Solomon chose wisely indeed; he asked for wis- 
dom with which to rule his kingdom. This pleased God 
so well that he promised to make a few perquisites. 
Just see the result of this gift of wisdom : and after a 
life of lust and profligacy, and doing what God had 
strictly forbidden, marrying strange women, he be- 
comes an idolator! 

Alas for the wisdom of Solomon! See 1 Kings xi. 
3, 4 : " And he had seven hundred wives, and three 
hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his 
heart. For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, 
that his wives turned away his heart after other 
gods." 

I now would call your attention to 1 Kings ix. IS. 
It is here stated how Solomon paid Hiram for mate- 
rial for this temple. It says Hiram gave him cedar 
trees and fir trees, and gold according to all his desire. 
Solomon paid him off in cities. He gave Hiram twenty 
of them in the land of Galilee. Hiram goes and looks 
them over and is not pleased. We do not understand 
that there was any action brought against Solomon 
for damage. Hiram simply called them the land of 
Cabul "unto this day." 

Now here we have it again, " unto this day." This 
proves that this writer of this Scripture is reaching 
far back into the past, and is reeling off that which 
is drawn from a myth, revamped into another, and is 



240 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

served up to us by the clergy as the "infallible word 
of God." 

Now, in 1 Kings xii. 19 we find this same expreession 
again : " So Israel rebelled against the house of David 
unto this day" And then, what may please the be- 
liever, and strengthen his faith in God's omnipresence, 
we find him advising on both sides of this divided 
house, that they might successfully exterminate each 
other. 

CHAPTER XX 

These two books, called 1st and 2d Kings, are a be- 
wildering, disgusting mess called history ; but it is not 
history; it is constantly referring to some other ac- 
count that this scripture is drawn from, and its con- 
tradictions, absurdities, things so utterly inhuman, and 
so much of it, and so much repetition, that it becomes 
wearisome and disgusting to recount or refute: because 
it does not look possible that a human being could be 
made to believe that such paltry stuff as this is a reve- 
lation from the Infinite God. 

Now to substantiate my claim, I will make a selec- 
tion or two. The first from 1 Kings xvi., commencing 
at the first verse and continuing to the fifteenth: 
" Then the word of the Lord came to Jehu the son 
of Hanani against Baasha, saying, Forasmuch as I 
exalted thee out of the dust, and made thee prince 
over my people Israel; and thou hast walked in the 
way of Jeroboam, and hast made my people Israel to 
sin, to provoke me to anger with their sins; Behold I 
will take away the posterity of Baasha, and the pos- 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 241 

terity of his house; and I will make thy house like the 
house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. Him that dieth 
of Baasha in the city shall the dogs eat; and him that 
dieth of his in the fields shall the fowls of the air eat. 

"Now the rest of the acts of Baasha, and what he 
did, and his might, are they not written in the book of 
the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? 

"So Baasha slept with his fathers, and was buried 
in Tirzah: and Elah his son reigned in his stead. 

" And also by the hand of the prophet Jehu the son 
of Hanani came the word of the Lord against Baasha, 
and against his house, even for all the evil that he did 
in the sight of the Lord, in provoking him to anger 
with the work of his hands, in being like the house of 
Jeroboam; and because he killed him." 

(8) " In the twenty and sixth year of Asa King of 
Judah began Elah the son of Baasha to reign over 
Israel in Tirzah, two years." 

(9) "And his servant Zimri, captain of half his 
chariots, conspired against him, as he was in Tirzah, 
drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza steward of 
his house in Tirzah." 

(10) "And Zimri went in and smote him, and killed 
him, in the twenty and seventh year of Asa King of 
Judah, and reigned in his stead." 

(11) "And it came to pass, when he began to reign, 
as soon as he sat on his throne, that he slew all the 
house of Baasha; he left him not one alive, neither of 
his kinsfolks, nor of his friends." 

(12) " Thus did Zimri destroy all the house of 
Baasha, according to the word of the Lord, which he 
spake against Baasha by Jehu the prophet." 



242 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

(13) "For all the sins of Baasha, and the sins of 
Elah his son, by which they sinned, and by which they 
made Israel to sin, in provoking the Lord God of Israel 
to anger with their vanities." 

(14) " Now the rest of the acts of Elah, and all that 
he did, are they not written in the book of the Chron- 
icles of the Kings of Israel? " 

Now, reader, here is a prophecy of God as it came 
to Jehu the prophet. Now, there is no prophecy given 
in this Bible from any higher source. This is right 
from headquarters, according to "The Book." If 
there is anything spoken by God through the mouth 
of a prophet, we have no more right to reject this 
prophecy than we have to reject any other, or the 
whole. 

Now, I would like to have you understand this 
prophecy before we proceed farther to analyze the 
prophets or their prophecies. 

The word of the Lord came to Jehu the prophet: 
That Baasha and his household and all of his kinsfolk 
must be destroyed. 'Tis said that "distance lends en- 
chantment to the view " ; but we all know that if we 
would give a thing close inspection, we must place our- 
selves at the proper limit of vision. Thus, in this case 
of Jehu's prophecy, we must bring this down to our 
time and age, where we can get it in correct range of 
our mental vision. 

Now, suppose at this age we have a prophet of God, 
which we have just as good right to have as had the 
Jews at that time. Now let us premise that this 
prophet should declare that God had made his will 
known to him, that a certain family in our community 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 243 

must be plucked up, destroyed; not only the whole 
family, but all his kindred and friends. So you see 
what a power is given this prophet to work out his 
hellish designs ; with people sufficiently ignorant and 
superstitious when a prophecy like this is thrown upon 
their ears, being the word of God and his will and 
wishes embodied in said prophecy, what would be the 
result? Just about what happened here in this case. 
Any religious zealot would think he was doing God's 
will in committing this wholesale murder. 

But suppose, dear believer, to bring this in closer 
range, this prophecy is pronounced against you and 
your household. Do you not think you would question 
this prophet's credentials by this time? I think so. 

I rather guess Prof. Foster is correct in his views 
upon revealed religion. How can the believer believe 
such flimsy stuff as the above a revelation from the 
Infinite? How can there be pleasure in believing it? 

This is a fair sample of the prophecies. I shall aim 
to give you a few more when I reach that part of my 
work. 

Our next Scripture lesson begins at 1 Kings xvii. 
At the beginning of this chapter Elijah the Tishbite 
commences holding forth. This is the first he is men- 
tioned; he is full grown and enters upon his duty as 
though he had been in business for a long time and 
thoroughly understands his work. Now let us con- 
sider a few things that he does, and see to what extent 
the Christian's faith may reasonably be strengthened 
by the doings of this marvelous Bible character. The 
wonderful things that Eli j ah did are among my earliest 
recollections. Those impressions are among the things 



£44 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

to which the mystic chords of memory still cling; and 
I can but express astonishment at the way I accepted 
those stories then as told me by my parents, and the 
way I look at them now. The trouble is, they are never 
presented to the child as they really are by Christian 
teachers and the child gets erroneous impressions ; and, 
as it has been expressed: 

" A pebble in the streamlet scant 

Has turned the course of many a river ; 
A dewdrop on the tender plant 

Has warped the giant oak forever." 

Elijah the Tishbite is a character laid claim to by 
some Spiritualists in proof of Biblical Spiritualism ; but 
it partakes too much of the miraculous, too unreason- 
able, too diabolical, for me to make any use of it in 
this direction. I can make no use of Elijah except in 
the negative. He is claimed to have been reincarnated 
into John the Baptist. Christ says this, but the truth- 
seeker is not bound to believe this, until all that Christ 
is made to say, and to have done, are proved rational 
and true. Elijah again appears with Moses on the 
Mount of the Transfiguration, if the account be true, 
and Peter and James and John saw him. I will aim 
to speak of this later. 

Elijah makes his debut as though he had dropped 
from the clouds, does a number of stunts as though 
he were trying to beat all previous records, and is then 
translated into heaven, as the account says. Now, if 
Elijah had taught or done one thing humane or that 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 245 

would accord with common decency, the fraud might 
not be so apparent; but look his record over. 

The first thing he would make you believe is that he 
had sole control of the weather department; and, to 
carry out his diabolical plans, makes this proclama- 
tion : " As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom 
I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but 
according to my word." And then comes the prover- 
bial "word of the Lord," telling him to go and hide 
by the brook Cherith. Why would he want to keep 
himself in hiding? However, here he is fed by ravens, 
while all the rest of Israel are starving to death. Who 
knows that ravens carried him bread and meat? He 
was alone, and we have no other proof than Elijah's 
bare word for it. Now, is not this question of mine 
enough to make one smile, since there has been oppor- 
tunity for setting afloat just such legends as this, and 
then doctoring them or remodeling them for thousands 
of years. It seems that the Bible-makers were the clum- 
siest botchers that the world has ever known, and yet 
their mummery with orthodoxy passes at full face value 
and is given to the " child of simple trusting faith " as 
soul food. 

This brook dries up, and then " the word of the Lord 
comes again," informs Elijah that there is a widow 
that he (God) has made arrangements for him to board 
with. Was not God on Lijah's side? He goes as di- 
rected, finds this widow with one son, a small child, 
I would infer. She is hard up ; she has but a handful 
of meal and a very little oil, which she expects to cook 
for herself and son and then prepare for the inev- 
itable. 



246 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

As I understand this Scripture, this is all Lijah's 
doing. It could not help theology to try to lay this 
famine to God's charge. I think we should give this 
glory to Lige. God's record for this kind of dealing 
stands too high for him to quarrel for this glory. 

Now just see what this man of God enjoys. There 
can be no doubt but the whole country was suffering 
to the same extent as was this widow and her son. Eli- 
j ah extends his power to this meal barrel and her cruse 
of oil ; we are not informed what kind of oil. He tells 
her to make him a cake, which she does, and the oil 
and meal lasts on and on. After a time the son falls 
sick: we do not know whether this miraculous meal 
agrees with him or what it is, but he dies. The poor 
widow wails the loss of her son. Lijah takes him and 
goes up in the garret and lays upon him and calls upon 
his God with fervent prayer, and lays upon him again 
— he stretches himself upon the child three times — and 
the child is restored to life by this marvelous man of 
God. This is the first case that they have got on to 
the racket of restoring the dead to life. 

The miraculous destruction of life has been much in 
evidence, and terrible to contemplate; but this is the 
first time that there has been produced a back-action. 
Now, it is understood by the medical profession that 
there are cases of suspended animation bearing such a 
striking resemblance to death itself that it has been 
proved that people have been buried alive. But where 
death has taken place, the heart action has entirely 
ceased and the blood has coagulated, there has never 
been a case where life has been restored, nor will there 
ever be. 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 247 

This case of this widow's son is not considered, only 
as it brings this subject before us. 

When Lijah brings this child down from the loft and 
shows him to the widow, calling her attention to the 
fact that he had brought him back again to life, then 
she seems for the first time to suspect him to be a 
man of God. 

What we have given thus far of Elijah is confined to 
the seventeenth chapter of the first book of Kings. 

Our next lesson is drawn from the next, or 1 Kings 
xviii. Elijah's next scheme is to get the drop on all 
of the prophets of Baal. We cannot follow Lijah very 
closely here; we must cut the corners, otherwise the 
story will be too long to fit the place. Elijah arranges 
with Ahab. Ahab is King of Israel, but he has gone 
a-whoring as usual after other gods, this time after 
Baal and his prophets. Here he arranges with Ahab 
for a test case, to prove the efficiency of their respec- 
tive gods. 

Lige arranges the terms and conditions ; they are to 
have two bullocks cut in pieces, and put upon wood 
with no fire underneath. The test is to see which God 
is the best hand at producing what we would term 
spontaneous combustion, with conditions equal. 

When the arrangements are made, Lige calls atten- 
tion to the fact that there are four hundred and fifty 
prophets on Baal's side, and he alone on his God's side. 
Then Lige tells them to proceed with their side of the 
game, their prayers to Baal. This they commence 
early in the day, to put up their supplications and 
continue this till high noon. Then Lijah begins to 
make sport of them, and tells them to shout louder, 



£4S PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

possibly their god is away on a journey, perhaps 
asleep, and must be awoke. And they cried and prayed 
still louder, and finally cut themselves with knives, till 
there was a copious flow of blood. Well, these foolish 
prophets kept up their jamboree till time for vesper 
service, and no god answered and no fire was kindled 
in their wood. Then Lige tells them to fall back ; time 
is up with them. Then Lige proceeds with his side of 
the game: he piles up twelve stones, lays on his wood, 
tells the people to stand close, to see that there is no 
fraud lurking in his test, when this part of the job is 
done; he then proceeds to dig a trench around his 
altar; he then tells them to fill four barrels with water 
(how things seem to be always at hand! — how came 
they by these barrels?) and pour this water upon his 
altar; he tells them to repeat this operation four 
times, which is done; until the overflow fills the trench 
around the altar. 

This looks to us like an extravagant use of water, 
since it has not rained for three years and the people, 
we have a right to suppose, are all dead, only those 
that are giving us this entertainment. But Lijah don't 
mind this waste of water; the occasion warrants it. 
Verse 36: "And it came to pass, at the time of the 
offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the 
prophet came near, and said, Lord God of Abraham, 
Isaac and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou 
art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that 
I have done all these things at thy zvord." 

(37) " Hear me, Lord, hear me, that this people 
may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou 
hast turned their heart back again." 

(38) " Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 249 

the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and 
the dust, and licked up the water that was in the 
trench." 

(39) " And when all the people saw it they fell on 
their faces: and they said, The Lord, he is the God; 
the Lord, he is the God," 

(40) "And Elijah said unto them, Take the proph- 
ets of Baal; let not one of them escape. And they took 
them; and Elijah brought them down to the brook 
Kishon and he slew them there." 

Now here comes in the mystery of godliness again. 
Does it not look strange, to say the least, that after 
this proving of gods, and Elijah's God had skunked 
them completely, that Elijah and his God would not 
have acted once humanely ? Why could not Eli j ah have 
said to the prophets of Baal : " Now, my dear erring 
brothers, does not this prove to you that your gods 
are entirely inadequate to cope with Israel's God? 
Dear erring brothers, this God of Israel will gladly 
extend his omnipotent arm to you and all of yours, if 
you will but reject your little worthless gods and turn 
to him. Just see, here are four hundred and fifty of 
you that can now return to your people, and teach this 
glorious eternal Truth: That the God of Israel is 
God indeed." If Elijah could have been prompted by 
his God to have said this, or to this effect, and Israel's 
God had have worked along these lines, how much bet- 
ter would the plan have been laid; and although the 
world would be still deceived, yet how much better 
would the showing have been, how much better would 
the way have been paved, and how much better the 
prerogative for his Sonship Christ. If the creators of 
Israel's God could have known enough to have worked 



250 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

along the lines of humanity, his Son might have in- 
herited a better disposition, and might not have been 
made to say things so repugnant to our better nature. 
" But of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest 
are these, 'It might have been.'" Elijah, according 
to the account, slew the four hundred and fifty. Just 
think of one man killing this number of human beings 
in an open field ! How the godly old prophet must have 
enjoyed it! 

(41) He then tells Ahab to get him up and eat and 
drink, for there is the sound of abundance of rain. 

We cannot make it profitable to follow Elijah far- 
ther; he makes his exit by going up to heaven in a 
whirlwind, and his mantle falls on Elisha, his suc- 
cessor. 

This man Elijah has been preached for centuries as 
one of the greatest prophets ; but what does he tell 
us? He does not prophesy of Christ one syllable, nor 
one thing that can be tortured into anything of any 
value to the Christian churches of to-day. He is sim- 
ply a wonderman. 

Possibly where he goes up in the whirlwind may be 
made, to typify Christ's ascension to heaven ; but there 
have been many people since then carried up in cyclones 
which might typify the same thing. 

For our next Scripture lesson, I will invite your 
attention to the account where Ahab, King of Judah, 
goes up to possess Ramoth-Gilead. Here we are led 
to suppose that all the prophets of Israel are called 
together, to prophesy, and as it is the prophets and 
their prophecies we are interested in, this selection 
makes us a good object lesson of both God and the 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 251 

prophets. (See 1 Kings xxii.) The great majority 
of the kings of Israel, and of Judah, God seems to hate 
inveterately. In fact, there are none that I recall that 
he did not abhor but David and Asa. There never was 
one that tried harder to please this fickle God than did 
Josiah, but he failed. Now our lesson. Ahab, as usual, 
did evil in the sight of the Lord. God claims he was 
the worst among them up to this date; and he sends 
Elijah to pronounce his malediction: and this makes 
Ahab go softly — carefully — when Ahab hears what is 
in store for him. (1 Kings xxi. 27.) " He rent his 
clothes and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, 
and lay in sackcloth, and went softly" 

(28) "And the word of the Lord came to Elijah 
the Tishbite saying, Seest thou how Ahab humbleth 
himself before me? because he humbleth himself be- 
fore me, I will not bring the evil in his days; but in his 
son's days will I bring the evil upon his house." 

Now all must concede that this is a high order of 
justice. Ahab has done evil, and is repentant, so God 
reserves the punishment for the next generation: but 
this is a falsehood. God promises to withhold his 
wrath, but this next chapter shows us he has changed 
his mind, and engages himself in suborning the angels 
of heaven to put Ahab where the dogs can lick up 
his blood. 

According to the account, Israel and Judah are at 
this time on fair terms, and Jehosophat, King of Ju- 
dah, came down to the King of Israel (Ahab) and said 
(verse 3) : " Know ye that Ramoth-Gilead is ours, and 
we be still, and take it not out of the hand of the King 
of Syria? " 



252 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

(4) " And he said unto Jehosophat, Wilt thou go 
with me to battle to Ramoth-Gilead? " And Jehosophat 
replies in substance, " My sword and yours are kin." 

(5) " And Jehosophat said unto the King of Israel 
(Ahab), Inquire, I pray thee, at the word of the Lord 
to-day." (6) " Then the King of Israel gathered the 
prophets together, about four hundred men, and said 
unto them, Shall I go against Ramoth-Gilead to battle, 
or shall I forbear? And they said, Go up; for the 
Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the King" 

Jehosophat wants to know if there is yet another 
prophet that they may inquire of. 

Ahab says, " There is yet one more, but I hate him 
because he always prophesies evil concerning me." 

But Jehosophat says, " Let not the King say so, but 
let this prophet also be called." 

Then Ahab called an officer and instructed him to 
bring this prophet, Micaiah by name. 

The two kings get themselves arranged during this 
interim with all of the prophets in order, and Zedekiah 
made him horns of iron to illustrate his prophecy and 
make it forceful ; and said, " Thus saith the Lord, With 
these shalt thou push the Syrians, until thou have con- 
sumed them." 

(12.) " And all the prophets prophesied so, saying, 
Go up to Ramoth-Gilead, and prosper, for the Lord 
shall deliver it into the king's hand. 

(13.) "And the messenger that was gone to call 
Micaiah spake unto him, saying Behold now, the words 
of the prophets declare unto the king with one mouth: 
let thy word, I pray thee, be like the word of one of 
them, and speak that which is good" 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 253 

(14.) " And Micaiah said, As the Lord liveth, what 
the Lord saith unto me, that will I speak" 

(15.) "So he came to the Icing. And the king said 
unto him, Micaiah, shall we go against Ramoth-Gilead 
to battle, or shall we forbear? And he answered him, 
Go and prosper; for the Lord shall deliver it unto the 
hand of the king." 

Now this is what Micaiah gives straight, but Ahab 
does not appear to feel just satisfied with his prophecy, 
and wants to cross-examine: And by prying he gets 
and thereby we get a view from behind the curtain ; and 
here it is: 

(19.) "And he said, Hear thou therefore the words 
of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and 
all the host of heaven standing by him on his right 
hand, and on his left." 

(20.) "And the Lord said, Who shall persuade 
Ahab that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-Gilead? 
And one said on this manner, and another said on that 
manner." 

(21.) "And there came forth a spirit, and stood 
before the Lord, and said, I will persuade him." 

(22.) "And the Lord said unto him, Wherewith? 
And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit 
in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou 
shalt persuade him and prevail also: go forth, and 
do so." 

(23.) "Now therefore, behold, the Lord hath put a 
lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and 
the Lord hath spoken evil concerning thee." 

Well the sequel of this story shows that Micaiah's 
prophecy on his cross-examination came true (read 



254 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

chapter) Elijah prophecied that dogs should lick up 
Ahab's blood, in the preceding chapter, verse nineteen, 
verse thirty-eight of this chapter, shows how it is ful- 
filled. But, reader, consider the character of the Chris- 
tian's father God. He promises after Elijah's prophecy 
is pronounced and Ahab is repentant, that he is going 
to postpone this punishment meted out for Ahab, and 
visit it upon his son. But now let us draw from this 
Scriptural account, our lesson which is to aid us in our 
Bible study of these prophecies of which we have been 
taught so much, and have heard preached so much. We 
learn here that this God is not so stable minded, as 
some would make you believe- — that he is the same yes- 
terday, to-day, and forever — We also learn that he is 
not particularly conscientious, and when it may please 
him to set a movement on foot to work destruction to 
an individual or a nation he needs only to make his 
wishes known, and in the courts of heaven comes for- 
ward spirits that can condescend to do that which 
would discount anything that has been ascribed to the 
Orthodox devil, so that 'twould make him blush with 
shame. And God is pleased to have accounts like this 
passed down to us as a part of his eternal plan, to prove 
his infinite and unbounded love to man. 

If God will condescend to deeds like this and suborn 
his angels to deceive his prophets, what foundation do 
we have to rest a hope of heaven upon? If 'twere 
blazoned in the Scripture so plain that all who run 
might read, that Christ was to come, at such a time 
and place and every detail given full and clear, by these 
his prophets, what warrant have we for belief? when 'tis 
proven o'er and o'er; That the Father God will thus 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 255 

deceive, and teach his chosen people everything that is 
bad. 

If he would resort to subterfuge like this for as triv- 
ial a thing as to get Ahab where the dogs can lick up 
his blood, for this, he would deceive four hundred 
prophets. Then why might not they who prophecy of 
Christ have been likewise deceived? 

But I do not think that this is so. I do not think 
there was a lying spirit put in the mouth of the prophets 
that prophecied of the Christian's Saviour. 

Reader, I do not entertain one thought that one of 
the Old Testament prophets among the thousands we 
are told of, ever thought of Christ, or ever prophecied 
one word that can be rationally tortured into a thing 
of the kind, as I expect to prove. Nor have I any more 
idea that Israel's God ever dreamed of this Orthodox 
Redeemer of the New Testament. 

It seems, dear reader, that if you have followed me 
till now, that reason must begin to assert itself, and 
you must begin to mistrust that there is a mistake some- 
where in this theological machinery. 

But let us to our next Scripture lesson. The next 
Bible character thai; I would speak of is Elisha, the 
man who inherits Elijah's mantle — the one upon whom 
Eli j ah's mantle falls — We are led to understand as per 
Scripture, that without this mantle Elisha would have 
been but an ordinary man ; but since he has it he does 
wonders that make the natives stare and marvel much. 

He performs very similar to his predecessor: but the 
truth is so much drivel about the account of these 
two men ; so much sameness, that amounts to nothing, 
and partakes so much of the nature of nursery tales 



256 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

that we become weary. There is nothing about the 
account of these two men, but that which awakens dis- 
gust, and makes us wonder, what did the writer of this 
insane, idiotic nonsense have in mind at the time of 
writing, and what could the compilers of this Bible or 
canon have thought when they cast their vote : And then 
again it is just as good as the most of it, as it is 
intended to be understood. 

It is a sad reflection on the intelligence of mankind, 
at this age of the world to make pretension that this 
Bible is a revelation from the Infinite. 

Now I will just give, say two samples of Elisha's 
wonders, God working with him. Elisha restores a 
dead child to life ; that was good of him. But just see, 
and note, what here stands against this good deed. 
See 2 Kings ii. 23-24, " And he (Elisha) went up from 
thence unto Bethel; and as he was going up by the 
way, there came forth little children out of the city, and 
mocked him, and said unto him, Go up thou bald head, 
go up thou bald head. And he turned back, and looked 
on them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. 
And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, 
and tare forty and two children of them." 

There is a certain pathos connected with this story, 
because these were little children, forty and two of them 
owned by parents we have a right to infer that loved 
them. These it seems had heard how Elijah had taken 
the sky fugal degree, and they had a childlike desire to 
see some of this fun themselves ; not thinking particu- 
larly any harm in referring to Elisha's bald head. It 
looks rather heartless for this man of God, to turn and 
look on them and curse them in the name of the Lord ! 
Elisha we assume knew well God's vindictive nature, and 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 257 

knew he would be quick to devise a way to bring them 
to time which the sequel shows. There comes from 
the wood two she bears, and tears them to a finish. If 
this tragedy had not been wrought for a special pur- 
pose, to impress little children as the ages roll — as I was 
once impressed — how they must fear God and revere 
God's good servants, I should say it were not necessary 
to have scrutinized those bears to see just what their 
ursine sex were. 

Just one more thought in regard to Elisha. See 
2 Kings xiii. 20-21, "And Elisha died and they buried 
him. And the bands of the Moabites invaded the land 
at the coming of the year" 

(21.) "And it came to pass as they were burying 
a man, that behold they spied a band of men; and they 
cast the man into the sepulcher of Elisha: and when 
the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha 
he revived and stood upon his feet." 

This quotation, also several others, were brought up 
in my preliminary work, but I wish to call your atten- 
tion to certain of them again, and should some one 
accuse me of undue repetition ; to such I would say, I 
am not engaged in competing for a prize in regard to a 
literary production, and where repetitions become 
necessary, I expect to freely make use of them. There 
is a vast amount of repetition in our Bible ; and much 
which seems wholly unnecessary. It has been said, and 
all must concede, that a matter of great import 
cannot well be dismissed by a single stroke of the pen. 
And as the subject upon which I am engaged, I con- 
sider of the greatest interest that can engage our 
thought; therefore let me repeat when necessary. 

In speaking of repetitions in the Scripture, I would 



258 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

call your attention to one case which seems unnecessary, 
2 Kings xix, and Isaiah xxxvi. These two chapters 
read precisely the same. Now since this bloody story is 
told in the blood stained book of Kings, and Isaiah, the 
greatest of the greater prophets, because 'tis claimed he 
prophecies more of the coming of the Prince of Peace, 
than do the others, therefore I do not see why he should 
have wished to embody this sanguinary story in his 
prophecy, there is certainly no prophecy, about this. 
In this account referred to, God's destroying angel, 
metes out death to one hundred and eighty five thousand 
Syrians, for the glory of God. Please look this up and 
prove it for yourselves. 

But to our lesson in regard to Elisha's bones. Do 
you believe this story? If you do not believe this, the 
whole account of these two wonderful men falls. Because 
this is just as rational of belief you will discover as any 
of the rest of the stories relating to them. And if you 
do believe this, what a blunder is here made ; because if 
there was this power remaining in this man's bones, 
consider how valuable they would have been in restor- 
ing the dead to life. We have no reason to premise 
that they would have lost their power by use any more 
than magnetism or virtue, and what a monopoly the 
possessor would have had. I do not see why the gen- 
eral resurrection could not have been brought about in 
this way. But enough of this. Suppose these miracles 
all facts : were these people for whom they were wrought 
improved thereby? Who here in America would vote to 
have this God here working his miracles to make us 
God-loving and God-fearing people? Who wants a 
God that he must hold in fear every breath of his 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 259 

life? What a sad showing, that of the Jews! And 
yet they claim that they can read between the lines of 
their Bible that great promises to them are made, that 
they are to be gathered together sometime, somewhere 
yet in the future, and are to be greatly blessed, above 
all the nations of the earth, yet to be fulfilled. I should 
think their Old Book would cure them of that faith. 

'Tis said the flesh of a snake is a cure for his bite. 
And I should think this book a good antidote for belief 
let it be taken in doses large or small. 

CHAPTER XXI 

For our next lesson, I wish to make a brief review 
of King Josiah's reign ; which is really the closing scene 
of the Jewish monarchy. 

The account of this king's reign commences at the 
beginning of 2 Kings xxii. Here are the headings of 
this first chapter. 

(1.) Josiah's good reign. (3.) He taketh care for 
the repair of the temple. (8.) Hilkiah having found 
a book of the law, Josiah sendeth to Huldah to inquire 
of the Lord. (15.) Huldah prophecieth the destruction 
of Jerusalem, but respite thereof in Josiah's time. 

Now, dear friends, Josiah's reign is said to be a good 
one, so let us examine and see what a good reign con- 
sists of. He commenced his reign when he was eight 
years old, it says. And he did that which was right 
in the sight of the Lord. Josiah it appears was a 
good little boy. When he was eighteen, he sent word to 
Hilkiah the high priest, to see what money they had 
on hand, which the keepers of the door had gathered 



260 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

of the people, and to have it laid out to repair the 
temple, unto carpenters and builders and masons, and 
to buy timber and hewn stone to repair the house. 

Well while they were overhauling and repairing, 
verse eighth, Hilkiah the high priest, said unto Shaphan 
the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house 
of the Lord. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan 
and he read it. 

I must confess, I am at a loss in regard to this book. 
Whether it is the same law that God gave to Moses in 
the wilderness, or whether it was a revised statute, or 
something that had been surreptitiously put in the 
temple to keep the " pot boiling " we cannot tell. It 
looks however, that they had been running business on 
tradition and had not kept a copy of the law in sight 
or had it tacked upon the doorposts as they should, 
and therefore had digressed until the damage had 
become irreparable. Shaphan comes to the king, tells 
him that they have gathered the money and that the 
work is in progress. He then says Hilkiah the priest, 
hath discovered to me a book. And Shaphan read it 
before the king. 

The book must have contained a startling revelation 
to the king, for when he heard the words of the book 
of the law, he rent his clothes ; verse IS. The king 
appointed a committee to go and inquire of the Lord 
for him, and for all the people, and for all Judah, 
concerning the words of this book that is found. 

They seem to know before they had made inquiry, 
that the wrath of the Lord was terrible to contemplate. 
But where does this committee go to make inquiry. 
What has become of the ark of God through which 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 261 

Javah was wont to make his will and wishes known? 
What has become of the body of Priesthood and all of 
Israel's prophets, that belongs to the king's " Atache " ? 

Instead of looking to these, Josiah or his committee 
seems to have no faith in them, they do just what 
Saul did, when he wanted information he could rely 
upon; They go to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of 
Shallum, keeper of the wardrobe, and she dwelt in 
Jerusalem in the college, and they communed with her. 
And here is what they get: 

(15.) "And she said unto them, Thus saith the 
Lord God of Israel. Tell the man that sent you to me: 

(16.) " Thus saith the Lord, Behold I will bring 
evil upon this place and upon the inhabitants thereof, 
even all the words of the booh which the king of Judah 
hath read; 99 

(17.) " Bee pus e they have forsaken me, and have 
burned incense unto other gods, that they might pro- 
voke me to anger with all the works of their hands; 
therefore my wrath shall be kindled against this place, 
and shall not be quenched 99 

(18.) " But to the king of Judah which sent you to 
inquire of the Lord, thus shall ye say to him. Thus 
saith the Lord God of Israel, as touching the words 
which thou hast heard; 99 

(19.) "Because thine heart was tender, and thou 
hast humbled thyself before the Lord, when thou 
heardest what I spake against this place, and against 
the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a 
desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and 
wept before me; I also have heard thee, saith the 
Lord. 99 



Zm PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

(20.) "Behold therefore, I will gather thee unto thy 
fathers, and thou shalt be gathered unto thy grave in 
peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which 
1 will bring upon this place. And they brought the 
Icing word again." 

Now the question that forces itself to the front is. 
Who is Huldah the prophetess ; nearly all we have to 
judge her from is this prophecy she has here pro- 
nounced. 

She comes to the front just this time as did the 
woman of En-dor; she speaks boldly; there is no con- 
cealment or palliation discernible in her prediction. 
There has been no lying spirit practicing any of his 
cajoleries in this case, the thing comes to pass with 
unerring precision. It is evident to my mind that 
Huldah belongs to the same school as did the woman 
of En-dor. The king's committee would certainly not 
have gone to any second rate place with matter so 
important, and if she had have belonged to the house 
of Israel, why should not her book of prophecies have 
found a place in the Bible? And why should she not 
have prophesied of this great, coming event, and cul- 
mination of this great plan of salvation, Jesus of 
Nazareth? 

It is evident from the conduct of Israel and Judah, 
that for centuries they have had a mighty slack faith in 
their God or his prophets, as Josiah's house-cleaning 
will show. 

Josiah after this committee has returned with Hul- 
dah's prophecy, sends and gathers all the elders of 
Judah, and Jerusalem ; in fine he gathers all the people 
both small and great, and all the prophets : is not this 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 263 

enough to make one smile? — We do not understand that 
Huldah is among them; she would not be admitted to 
that ilk among the Jews. — See £ Kings xxiii. % " And 
he read in their ears all the words of the hook of 
the covenant which was found in the house of the 
Lord." This chapter and the one preceding, you should 
read carefully several times over, whether you are a 
believer or not; because it teaches a lesson of great 
importance to the investigator, let him be on either side 
of the proposition. 

A great many thoughts suggest themselves in perus- 
ing these chapters, I do not see how the believer can 
but ask this question. Have not God and Israel both 
made a grave mistake and has not the scheme thus far 
been a dismal failure. And see what it has cost ! Con- 
sider the tragedies that are here enacted in this account ; 
and where is Huldah? Has she been murdered in 
Josiah's zeal to get right with God? Verse twenty- 
four of this twenty-third chapter, strongly suggests this 
question, and justifies this conclusion, " Moreover the 
workers with familiar spirits and the wizards that 
were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem did 
Josiah put away." (Murder.) 

But here dear friends we must hold Josiah up in his 
zeal, because there are a large fraction of the popu- 
lation of Jerusalem, that God and Judah could not 
drive out, and they dwell in Jerusalem unto this day. 

We have good reason to suspect that Huldah was a 
Jebusite. First — The name is not a Jewish name, and 
Second — She was connected with the college at Jeru- 
salem: and a college or a temple of learning was 
something entirely foreign to Judaism. As their God 



264 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

had never manifested any interest in schools for secular 
knowledge. 

Here in (2 Kings xxxiii. 25-26-27) is one of the 
toughest problems for the Christian that his book con- 
tains; and shows that this God is not what the Chris- 
tian claims, when he says he is a prayer hearing and 
a prayer answering God. 

In summing up Josiah's detergent work, it states : 

(25.) " And like unto him, was there no king before 
him, that turned to the Lord with all his heart, and 
with all his soul, and with all his might, according to 
all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there 
any like him." 

(26.) "Notwithstanding, the Lord turned not from 
the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger 
was kindled against Judah, because of all the provo- 
cations that Manasseh had provoked him withal" 

(27.) " And the Lord said I will remove Judah also 
out of my sight as I have removed Israel, and will cast 
off this City Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the 
house of which I said, my name shall be there" 

Whether this prophecy is built up to fit the circum- 
stances, or not judge ye. 

But according to their history this is virtually the 
end of the Jewish monarchy. There was a feeble pre- 
tence to rulership by Jehoikim I, and Jehoikim II, his 
son, reigned three months. But Nebuchadnezzar King 
of Babylon, it seems grew weary of the behavior of 
this Godly blood-thirsty little faction, and concludes 
to give them a term of service of captivity into Baby- 
lon; and they pass from the earth as a nation, I 
think we are safe in saying forever ! 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 265 

There is a thing 1 or two I would speak of at this 
juncture, First — The last part of Huldah's prophecy. 
"Behold therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, 
and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and 
thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring 
upon this place." 

God in this communication, does not hold out one ray 
of hope to Josiah that he is to survive the change of 
death: nor has he throughout this whole dark revela- 
tion, if you are pleased to call it such. 

As a recompense for Josiah's good reign he is going 
to have him removed before his terrible day is to be 
called on. In verse twenty-nine his death is recorded; 
he was slain by the sword at Megiddo. And for all 
we can gleam from the Old Testament Scripture ; he is 
still enjoying a calm and undisturbed repose, un- 
troubled by the last of foes. 

What a melancholy showing that of the Jews! It 
seems astonishing that a people of the intelligence of 
these in our United States, or in fine of the advanced 
nations of this globe could be cajoled in believing, at 
this twentieth century, that this Bible is a revelation 
from the most High God ! 

Reader is it not also anomalous, that people from 
the same base of reasoning will arrive at such diver- 
gent conclusions ? This obtains as well in politics as in 
religion. 

But in politics it may not look so passing strange, 
that in this reign of error and misconception, that 
graft and intrigue should obtain. How could it well 
be otherwise, with this book which is impressed upon 



9.66 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

the mind of the young of all ages, as a revelation of 
God, therefore the guide book of life, and that from 
its pages we glean the loftiest conceptions of human 
virtue. 

If as Prof. Foster says, " This Old Scripture is but 
a reflection of the mind of the barbarous people in the 
age in which it was created ; it is evident that this same 
Scripture must act as a boomerang and returns to us 
this same barbarous nature." In fact it leaves us 
stranded; for this God is so many sided, that I look 
upon him as much worse than no God at all. 

To make myself better understood I would ask this 
question. How can man be expected to be very much 
better than his creator? And if this God of the Bible 
is really and truly our creator, I think we should be 
truly thankful that we are as good as we are. But if 
for any reason we conclude that this Bible — Christian — 
Father — Israel's — Judah's — God, is not our bonafide 
creator, that we then have a right to set up and look 
conditions over, and to try and improve said conditions 
in each and all of the human activities, and thereby 
raise to a higher status the morals of humanity, 
and give a better interpretation to the word char- 
ity. 

Charity; love. The Bible is like a two edged sword 
upon this sub j ect ; it cuts both ways : And while there 
is all this confusion of thought and the corresponding 
inequality of the necessities of life; while by the door 
of affluence and wealth, is the sad contrast of poverty 
and want, in its most aggravated form. And in close 
proximity to the highly salaried vicar or priest dwells 
the poor layman barred by poverty from the privilege 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 267 

of hearing the preached word that leads to heaven, to 
God. 

And yet amid all this strife, this inequality of wealth, 
and conflicting religions, and conflicting policies of 
every name and nature, there is still the straight and 
narrow way, Truth. Eternal Truth ! the only guiding 
star upon which the poor bewildered wanderer can 
rest a hope. " But, here's the rub." Among the many 
stars that rise and set, and glow with an effulgence 
that dazzles the mental vision with strange fascination, 
where gazers are to be counted by the million, and who 
with exultation shout to their respective star, All Hail ! 
All Hail! Well might we ask, how are we to tell the 
false star from the true? Reason make use of Reason, 
the gift that raises man above the level of the brute and 
makes him monarch of created things. Reason is our 
true redeemer, and the messenger of love that is to 
discover to us demonstrated truth and see it enthroned 
in its rightful place the human heart. 

Now I would like to speak for a brief space to the 
Christian. You may think I take delight in laboring 
to break down your faith, and then smile with exultation 
o'er the ruin I have wrought. I assure you I do not 
feel this way. I feel like one who has wandered over 
deserts dark and drear: and was rescued by the beacon 
star of Truth, by taking Reason for a guide, and as 
it lifted from my life a weary load, why should I not, 
out of love and friendship for my own, have a kindly 
desire to let you know? 

How many a Christian relying on his faith and what 
he thinks the promises of God has lived a consistent 
Christian life and ended his days in the almshouse. 



268 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

While others bloated with selfrighteousness and greed, 
have thanked God that they were not like this poor 
pauper. 'Tis evident that there is a screw loose some- 
where in this religious and economic machinery, and 
this is what I would find and discover it to you: and 
since this common fate Death awaits us all, let us 
continue hand in hand our examination of the prophets, 
and see if Reason points out from this vague and 
obscure accumulation of literature called the prophecies, 
if Christ is really heralded by them as claimed. 

CHAPTER XXII 

I shall aim to make a brief mention of the remaining 
books of the Old Testament, but it is the prophecies 
claimed to herald Christ, that we will give attention 
now. 

See Matt. i. 2-3, " Behold a virgin shall be with 
child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call 
his name Emanuel, which being interpreted is God 
with us." Now for this prophecy of what is claimed the 
miraculous conception, you are referred to Isaiah vii. 14. 
The marginal chronology in Isaiah places this prophecy 
back to 2 Kings xvi. To the time of the wicked reign 
of Ahaz. 

Now when you study the preceding portion of this 
chapter containing this prophecy, you will discover that 
Ahaz is alarmed and not without reason, by threaten- 
ings of Rezin, King of Syria, and Pekah, the son of 
Remaliah, King of Israel, who went up toward Jeru- 
salem, to war against it, but would not prevail against 
it. 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 269 

Here is the King of Syria and the King of Israel 
entered into a confederation against Judah! Now is 
not this a pretty kettle of fish! to say the least; but 
we must take it as we find it. 

The Lord told Isaiah to go with his son, and meet 
Ahaz at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, in 
the highway of the fuller's field, and there he was going 
to communicate with him in regard to the state of 
affairs. Well here is what this confederation propose 
to do (verse 6) " Let us go up against Judah and vex 
it, and let us make a breach therein for us and set a 
king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeal." 

(Verse 7.) Here is what God gives to Isaiah, " Thus 
saith the Lord God, It shall not stand, neither shall 
it come to pass. And God says within sixty-five years 
Ephraim {Israel) shall be broken that it be not a 
people." This judgment is presumably because of this 
alliance with Rezin, King of Syria. There seems to be 
a very different feeling between these two Jewish 
tribes now than at the time they went up to possess 
Ramoth-Gilead. But the Lord gives Ahaz to under- 
stand in order to have his (God's) promise fulfilled, he 
(Ahaz) must believe. 

Verse ten, " Moreover, the Lord spake again unto 
Ahaz, saying, Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God; 
ask it either in the depth, or in the height above." 

Here is a tremendous amplitude for choice of a sign 
where it is to prove a specified thing. But Ahaz seems 
to be bewildered in what to ask that would be a satis- 
factory sign, so he concludes not to tempt the Lord by 
asking a sign. So the Lord grants one gratis. See 
Isaiah vii. 13-14, Isaiah then says, "Hear ye now 



270 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary 
men, but will ye weary my God also? Therefore the 
Lord himself shall give you a sign, Behold a virgin 
shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name 
Immanuel." 

(15.) "Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may 
know to refuse the evil and choose the good" 

(16.) " For before the child shall know to refuse 
the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou 
abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings" 

Now please pay close attention. Ahaz was in sore 
distress in regard to what these two kings, Rezin, 
King of Syria, and Pekah, King of Israel, had conspired 
to do; to make a breach in Judah, and set a king 
therein. Ahaz does just what all the Kings of Israel 
and Judah have done for about eight hundred years. 
Go to a prophet to make inquiry of the Lord, how 
things are going to turn. Ahaz goes to Isaiah on this 
same old errand, to see how this impending trouble 
might terminate. 

How could the promise of Christ have been anything 
pertinent or in any way satisfactory to Ahaz's case. 

There is no such promise made, or nothing that 
can be construed to cover anything of the kind. This 
sign was meant to assuage Ahaz's immediate trouble. 
The sign given looks like a very uncertain one to 
appease one's woe, it reminds me of the boy standing 
a stick on end to see which way 'twill fall, as I have 
seen him do to decide which way to go. 

A virgin is to bear a son and she is to name him 
Immanuel. This prophecy does not signify in the least 
that it is to be a mirauclous conception, and when 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 271 

Ahaz at any time heard of a new born son by a virgin 
he could have suggested or named this son, and thereby 
had his sign fulfilled, and thus obtained solace to his 
fears. Tis certain a sign must precede the thing 
signified, and a virgin to have borne a son whether a 
miraculous conception or not, seven hundred and fifty 
years later, could not have answered the conditions of 
this prophecy: consequently Isaiah never prophecied 
of Christ ; and this much preached of prophecy when the 
searchlight of reason is brought to bear upon it 
fades to nothingness. 

In Isaiah vii. 3, this forecast is fulfilled or is at least 
represented to be " And I (Isaiah) went unto the 
prophetess, and she conceived and bear a son. Then 
said the Lord to me, Call his name Maher-shalal- 
hash-baz" (4.) "For before the child shall have 
knowledge to cry my father, and my mother, the riches 
of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken 
away before the King of Assyria." 

Now here is the fulfillment of this sign. Why God 
should not have ordered his name Immanuel, is just 
as much of a mystery as that Mary did not call her 
first off-spring Immanuel as she should if this prophecy 
had applied to her. 

In either case this prophecy is untrue. The history 
to which this prophecy refers is recorded in 2 Chron. 
xxviii. 1-6, " Ahaz was twenty years old when he began 
to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem: 
but he did not that which was right in the sight of 
the Lord. Wherefore the Lord his God delivered him 
into the hand of the King of Syria; and they smote 
him, and carried away a great multitude of them 



W(% PROGRESSIVE AGEt OF REASON 

captives, and brought them to Damascus. And he was 
delivered into the hand of the King of Israel, who smote 
him with a great slaughter." 

"For PeJcah the son of Remaliah slew in Judah a 
hundred and twenty thousand in one day, which were 
all valiant men; because they had forsaken the Lord 
God of their fathers." 

Is not this a great showing for prophecy as well as 
conduct for children of one family and these God's 
chosen people? 

Now to show the esteem in which God holds the 
prophets, see Jer. xxiii. 14-16, " / have seen also in 
the prophets of Jerusalem a horrible thing: they com- 
mit adultery, and walk in lies; they strengthen also the 
hands of evil doers, that none doth return from his 
wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, 
and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah." 

" Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts concern- 
ing the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with worm- 
wood, and make them drink the water of gall: for from 
the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness (margin, 
hypocrisy) gone forth into all the land" 

" Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Hearken not unto 
the words of the prophets that prophecy unto you." 

Here my friends is what I consider the best advice 
upon this subject that can be given, let it proceed 
from whatever source it may. But think of it, this 
comes directly from headquarters; from Go J himself: 
if God has spoken at all in this Bible he speaks here, 
and this is what he says. To Hearken not unto the 
words of the prophets when they prophecy unto you. 

But I do not expect all will take this good advice, 
so we must proceed with our review. 



PROGRESSIVE AGE, OF REASON 273 

The second effort to apply prophecy to Jesus occurs 
in Matt. ii. 5-6, it says, "And they said unto him in 
Bethlehem of Judea; for thus it is written by the 
prophet, and thpu Bethlehem, in the land of Judea, art 
not least among the princes of Juda; for out of thee 
shall come a governor that shall rule my people 
Israel." 

In bringing this second effort at applying prophecy 
to Christ, will make a quotation from the late Moses 
Hull from his book, " Our Bible, Who Wrote It— When 
—Where— How." 

He says, "This may be true"; that is, Herod may 
have asked these wise men this question, and, for any- 
thing I know to the contrary these wise men may have 
answered as this writer says; but if they did they 
were not wise in their answers. Before quoting the 
prophecy that this writer thinks he quotes, I would like 
to say that the queer antics of stars had heralded the 
advent of many Gods and great men long before 
Jesus was born, and that unless a star by some unstar- 
like behavior announced the birth of a God, that par- 
ticular God coming thus unannounced was not con- 
sidered much as a God. 

" Stars had been sent to announce the birth of 
Harus, of Egypt; Zoroaster, Buddha, Brahma, and 
even Romulus, and some of the Caesars, before Jesus; 
and Mohammed after Jesus. 

" Now when in the second century after Jesus the 
decision had been reached to make a God of him, it was 
necessary to re-introduce these eccentric stars." It is 
only in this one book of the Bible that these stories 
are found. 

The prophecy that this writer thinks he quotes 



274 PROGRESSIVE AGEi OF REASON 

(Tries to deceive us with) is found in Micah. v. 8-6, 
and reads as follows : 

"But thou Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be 
little among the thousands of Judah yet of thee shall 
he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; 
whose goings forth have been from of old from ever- 
lasting. Therefore will he give them up, until the time 
that she which travaileth hath brought forth; then the 
remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children 
of Israel. . . . And this man shall be the peace, when 
the Assyrian shall come into our land; and when he 
shall tread in our palaces, then shall he raise against 
him seven shepherds, and eight principal men, (eight 
princes margin) and they shall waste the land of 
Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the 
entrances thereof; thus shall he deliver us from the 
Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he 
treadeth within our borders." 

"Was this true of Jesus? Was he a ruler of the 
people?" The Assyrian came in and destroyed the 
land of the Jews about the time this prediction was 
written, but did the Assyrian come into the land, or 
even threaten the land in the days of Jesus? "Were 
not the Assyrians in as much subjection to the Romans 
at that time as were the Jews themselves? Did Jesus 
deliver the Jews out of the hands of the Assyrians, or 
of any body? Who and where were the seven shepherds 
and the eight principal men (princes) ? Did Jesus 
waste the land of the Assyrians and the land of 
Nimrod?" 

The only thing in this whole prediction that could 
by any possibility apply to Jesus was the fact that he 



PROGRESSIVE AGE, OF REASON 275 

happened to be born in Bethlehem; but there were 
thousands of children born there before, and thousands 
after Jesus; and among all the thousands, not one 
to whom the prophecy would not apply as well as it 
applied to Jesus." 

In Matt. ii. 14-15, another attempt is made to find 
a prediction that applies to Jesus. It says, " When 
he arose he took the young child and his mother by 
night, and departed into Egypt; and was there until 
the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which 
was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out 
of Egypt have I called my son." 

This quotation is another proof that this blunder- 
ing, blustering writer or interpolator, knew nothing of 
what he was writing about. " There is no such pre- 
diction as the writer thinks he is quoting. The only 
thing in the whole Bible that can possibly resemble 
this quotation in the least is in Hosea. xi. 1-2, which 
says: "When Israel was a child, then I loved him, 
and called my son out of Egypt. As they called them 
so they went from them; and they sacrificed unto 
Baalim, and burned incense to graven images." 

" The prophet is here referring to the past, that 
God loved his son, Israel, and called him out of Egypt 
on purpose so he could enjoy him; and when he got 
him out of Egypt he went to burning incense to Baalim, 
and worshipping graven images. I must be allowed 
to say that Jesus was not guilty. The text had no 
more reference to Jesus than it had to Gen. Grant or 
President McKinley." 

" The next effort of this writer to find or make a 
fulfillment of prophecy is found in Matt. ii. 17-18? which 



276 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

says : " Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by 
Jeremy the prophet, saying, In Rama was there a 
voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great 
mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and 
would not be comforted because they are not" 

Now turn to Jer. xxxi. 15-17, and it will be seen 
that after the prophet uses the language above quoted 
he says : 

" Thus saith the Lord, refrain thy voice from weep- 
ing, and thine eyes from tears, for thy work shall be 
rewarded, saith the Lord and they shall come again 
from the land of the enemy. And there is hope in 
thine end saith the Lord; thy children shall come 
again in their own border." 

In verse twenty-three he says, "As yet they shall 
use this speech in the land of Judah, and in the cities 
thereof, when I shall bring again their captivity." 

Why did Rachel, that is, Mother's in Israel weep? 
Not because their children were killed in and around 
Bethlehem, but because they were in captivity in Baby- 
lon — the land of their enemies. Why was she asked 
to refrain her voice from weeping and her eyes from 
tears? Not because the dead children should return 
to their mothers, but, because the children of Israel 
should return from Babylon, the land of the enemy. 
As in verse thirty-one, They should turn again to these 
cities. Verse twenty-three promises that their cap- 
tivity shall end and they shall use certain speeches in 
the land of Judah. 

There is only one more effort to make prophecy 
fulfilled in the birth of Jesus. Matt. ii. 23, has the 



PROGRESSIVE AGE, OF REASON 277 

following: "And he came and dwelt in the city called 
Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken 
by the prophets. He shall be called a Nazarene" 

This perhaps more than any other text displays the 
ignorance of the interpolator. There is no such 
prophecy as this writer supposes he is quoting. 

In Judges xii. 5, a prediction is made to Mrs. Man- 
oah concerning her son Samrson, which says, " No 
razor shall come on his head; for he shall be a Naz- 
arite unto God from the womb." 

The one who wrote the text in Matthew did not 
know the difference between a Nazarite and a Nazarene. 
The words sound a little alike, and that was enough 
in the estimation of the monk who wrote this to make 
the fulfillment of prophecy. If the reader will turn 
and read the first twelve verses of the sixth chapter 
of Numbers, he will find what a Nazarite is and how he 
must live. A Nazarene was one who dwelt at Nazareth. 
Samson was to be a Nazarite from his birth. This 
writer got an inkling of the text, and, moved by the 
sound of the words, rather than by sense, he hastened 
to apply it to Jesus, because he spent a few years of 
his childhood in Nazareth. 

I am not more astonished at the ignorance and 
audacity of this writer, than I am at the ignorance or 
perverseness of the clergy, who for centuries have 
allowed these New Testament expositions of the 
prophecies of the Old to go unchallenged. 

We will not follow Mr. Hull any farther. I would 
recommend his book Our Bible, etc., to all who would 
care to push their investigation farther along this 
line. 



278 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

I am glad Mr. Hull, among the rest, refers to this 
attempted prophecy relating to Jesus' sojourn at Naz- 
areth; because I had spoken of this and it shows it 
has been observed by more than one. 

There is, however, one exception I would note in 
this quotation from Mr. Hull. He alleges these pre- 
tended old prophecies of Jesus to the ignorance of the 
writer of this book of Matthew. I do not look at it 
altogether in this way: my best guess is that this 
writer was not as ignorant, as he was unprincipled 
and dishonest : and that he placed great confidence in 
the ignorance and gullibility of those expected to pay 
for this pretended unfoldment of Gods word and plan. 

I also hold a better opinion of the intelligence of the 
clergy of to-day, than to think that they believe, that 
these pretended Old prophecies relate in the least to 
the Christ of the New Testament. The fund upon which 
they for centuries have been doing business is this 
same, ignorance and gullibility, and is it not remark- 
able how this fund holds out? The begging that has 
been done from these Old Testament prophecies to 
substantiate the claims of the New is pitiable to say 
the least. 

Now let us consider this portion of the Old Testa- 
ment called the prophecies as a whole. These prophecies 
properly begin at Isaiah : a little more than one fourth 
of the Old Testament is occupied by these prophecies : 
you can see the amount the theologian makes use of 
in predicting of Jesus, a few extraneous sentences ; next 
to nothing ; and what is selected when put to an honest 
test sinks to nothingness. 

These prophecies were not written until after the 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 279 

Jewish captivity began according to the record, and 
then it seems that these poor Jewish monks had no 
other pastime than to prophesy. 

Now we will make a few promiscuous selections from 
Isaiah. He is considered one of the greater prophets. 
See Isaiah i. 18, God here says through this prophet, 
" Come and let us reason together, saith the Lord: 
though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white 
as snow; though they be red as crimson, they shall 
be as wool." Now God here asks us to reason together 
with him, and then immediately says that which is 
wholly unreasonable, and proceeds to contradict him- 
self pointedly in verse twenty of the same chapter, he 
says, " But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured 
with the sword; for the mouth of the Lord hath 
spoken it." 

Now turn to Isaiah iii. 16-26, *' Moreover the Lord 
saith; Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, 
and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, 
walking and mincing as they go, and making a twin- 
kling with their feet; Therefore the Lord will smite 
with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of 
Zion, and the Lord will discover their secret parts. 
In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of 
their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their 
cauls, and their round tires like the moon, the chains 
and the bracelets, and the mufflers, the bonnets, and 
the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the 
tablets and the earrings, the rings and nose jewels, the 
changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the 
wimples and the crisping pins. The glasses, and the 
fine linen, and the hoods and the vails. 



280 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 



"And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet 
smell there shall be stink; and instead of a girdle a 
rent; and instead of well set hair baldness; and 
instead of a stomacher a girdling of sackcloth; and 
burning instead of beauty, 

" Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty 
in the war. And her gates shall lament and mourn; 
and she bemg desolate shall sit upon the ground." 

Is it not astonishing how God's mind is occupied 
between times? 

Again see Isaiah xxviii. 6-8, " And for a spirit of 
judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and for 
strength to them that turn the battle to the gate. 
But they also have erred through wine, and through 
strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the 
prophet have erred through strong drink, they are 
swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through 
strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in 
judgment" God says through his best prophet, that 
the prophets err in consequence of drunkenness ! This 
would not be an irrational conclusion, had he not have 
made this admission himself that these prophecies 
sound more like the gibbering of drunkenness than 
anything else that can be named. 

See Isaiah xlii. 13, " The Lord shall go forth as a 
mighty man, he shall stir up jealousy like a man 
of war, he shall cry, yea roar, he shall prevail against 
his enemies." Thirteen of same chapter, " Who is blind, 
but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? 
Who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the 
Lord's servant? " If Isaiah is not meant here, who 
is it? 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 281 

See xliii. 3, Isaiah, " For I am the Lord thy God, the 
Holy one of Israel, thy Savior." 

Here God makes the unqualified declaration that 
he is the Holy One of Israel and the Savior. While 
the clergy would make you believe that here is meant 
the Messiah of the New Testament. 

Verses ten and eleven reinforces this declaration " Ye 
are my witnesses, saith the Lord and my servant whom 
I have chosen; (Isaiah) that ye may know and believe 
me, and understand that I am he; before me there 
was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. 
I even I am the Lord and beside me there is no savior" 

Here is prophecy that cannot well be misunderstood. 
Here God implies that before he commenced business 
there was no God, and after he has run his race we 
will have to go it alone. And that he is the only 
Savior and he declares in full measure, that we need 
look for no other. Or is this where Orthodoxy postu- 
lates the necessity of their Triune God or three Gods 
in one. 

CHAPTER XXIII 

We will now turn to Isaiah xlv. 1, " Thus saith 
the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus (King of Persia) 
whose right hand I have holden to subdue nations 
before him" 

King Cyrus is God's anointed in this case, and this 
is what you will find is meant every time by this 
expression " the Lord's anointed " that it means some 
of the kings at the time named. 

Napoleon Bonaparte is said to have said, That he 



282 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

had discovered that God was on the side where they 
had the best guns ; and here we have proof of this from 
one of the greatest prophets, that this is true. Here 
God has forgotten and forsaken Israel, and has taken 
off his coat and gone to work with all his might for 
Cyrus, King of Persia. 

In this same chapter (verse seven,) "J form the 
light, and create the darkness; I make peace and 
create evil; I the Lord do all these things." 

This certainly exonerates the Orthodox Devil of a 
vast deal that is laid to his charge ; for here God owns 
up that he is at the bottom of the whole business. 

We will now examine a few texts from tearful 
Jeremiah. 

See Jer. v. 30-31, "A wonderful and horrible thing 
is committed in the land; The prophets prophesy 
falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and 
my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in 
the end thereof?" Here is a text that should be preached 
from by the clergy. It applies both to the prophet 
and priest and might be extended to the politician. It 
hints that the prophecies are not altogether reliable; 
we get to this effect very frequently, and when coupled 
with the whole mass this is by far the most rational 
conclusion. 

Now turn to Jer. xlviii. 10, " Cursed be he that doeth 
the work of the Lord deceitfully, and cursed be who 
keepeth back his sword from blood." 

How does this tally with these prophets who are 
claimed to be predicting the advent of a Junior God; 
the Prince of Peace. 

As there is nothing in the prophecy of Jeremiah 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 283 

that the gospel writers can torture into anything 
that heralds Christ, we must let it pass. 

Jeremiah was in close confinement during pretty 
much the whole time we have any account of him, be- 
cause he did not prophesy to the satisfaction of the 
Jews. And at one time was let down into a dungeon 
by a rope where the floor was soft mud. 

A eunuch servant who seems to have had more 
humanity than the rest, interceded and obtained per- 
mission, then shouted down this shaft, instructed Jere- 
miah to put some rags under his arms to prevent 
the cord from cutting and then drew him out. Zede- 
kiah then wanted some advice from the Lord, in re- 
gard to how the Chaldeans were going to behave to- 
ward him and his people. Jeremiah instructs him that 
his only salvation laid in making a clean surrender to 
the Chaldeans — as he had told him before — Zedekiah 
then instructs him to deceive the people in regard to 
this communication which Jeremiah readily does. 

The Lamentations of Jeremiah we must pass. It 
would seem a fitting place to have pronounced them 
when he was down this dungeon in the mud, had there 
have been a stenographer at the top to have recorded 
them. 

This brings us to the prophecies of Ezekiel. The 
Lord has complained that the prophets have erred in 
consequence of strong drink, but I should say in this 
case of Ezekiel, that it is a pronounced case of jim 
jams in its most aggravated form, and that Ezekiel 
should have been hastened to the Keely cure as fast 
as they could have sped. The whole mess is senseless 
drivel, and to build a religion even though the most 



284 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

unreasonable I do not see where stuff like this can ap- 
ply. If any would take exception to what I have said, 
please read the first chapter wherein is described 
Ezekiel's wheel, with all its appurtenances, and then 
ponder the mysteries of Godliness. Then turn to chap- 
ter iv. 10-15, where God thinks he would enjoy seeing 
Ezekiel eat human excrement before the public. 

In Ezekiel xxxvii. is a mess of incongruity which 
aids in building the doctrine or belief of the resurrec- 
tion of the body, or what is taught as the general resur- 
rection. This belief has a considerable of a following 
and there have been many publications given to the 
world and a great many scares in consequence of these 
writers fixing a definite time when the " world was com- 
ing to its end." I remember well when I was a small 
boy, that one of these dates matured and it was much 
talked, and the mental suffering I endured that day 
made an indelible impress upon my mind that still re- 
mains. I remember well it was a windy day, and when 
there came a high breeze which I would hear in the 
wood I thought my time was up. Many years after, 
when I had grown to mature manhood, I read a book 
written by one Charles T. Russel, called " The Millen- 
nial Dawn," on the general resurrection, or the " second 
coming of Christ." 

I studied this book thoroughly, and searched the 
Scripture and for a time thought perhaps, as he de- 
clared he had been led into the unfathomable mysteries 
of Godliness by the Spirit that his interpretation and 
his book might be true, and the key to this great prob- 
lem of mystery. 

That all the inhabitants of earth who had been put 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 285 

to sleep in what looked like so unjust a manner, were 
to be awakened refleshed, taught by Christ the ways of 
righteousness for one thousand years. Then the 
Devil was to be unchained for a little season, and was 
to try his racket on each man and woman individually, 
instead of giving him such an opportunity as he had 
with father Adam and mother Eve, to damn the whole 
race by damning these two. 

That those who fail to withstand after the thou- 
sand years of Christ's teaching, this Devil's second deal, 
death overtakes and these are dead for all eternity. 
The others inherjt the earth and Christ returns to the 
Father. The little flock, or those who partake of 
the first resurrection spoken of in John the Revelator, 
retain the rulership for ever and ever. This earth then 
becomes their heaven. The wicked must be again en- 
tombed, but whether they are to be revered enough to 
have a tombstone, doth not appear. But the righteous 
can praise God to all eternity. I once considered this 
doctrine seriously, but had to abandon it upon investi- 
gation because my mind would not stand the strain. 

Just recently there came out another book upon this 
school of thought, entitled "The Coming King," by 
one, Mr. White, which parallels Mr. Russel's book so 
closely that comment on one applies to the other. 

Now as it is the prophets we are studying, will 
make a quotation from Ezekiel, which I think is the 
only thing in the Old Testament that can possibly be 
construed to touch upon the resurrection. What then 
is in the New we will study when we get there. See 
Ezekiel xxxvii., beginning at the first of chapter: 
" The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me 



286 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the 
midst of the valley which was full of bones, and caused 
me to pass by them round about; and, behold, there 
were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were 
very dry. And he said unto me, Son of man can these 
bones live? And I answered, 0, Lord God thou 
knowest. Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these 
bones, and say unto them, 0, ye dry bones, hear the 
word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto 
these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into 
you, and ye shall live: And I will lay sinews upon you, 
and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with 
shin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye 
shall know that I am the Lord. So I prophesied as 
I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a 
noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came to- 
gether, bone to his bone. And when I beheld, lo, the 
sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin 
covered them above: but there was no breath in them. 
Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, proph- 
esy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the 
Lord God; Come from the four winds, breath, and 
breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I 
prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came 
into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their 
feet, an exceeding great army." 

This prophecy applies only to the house of Israel; 
here is no promise to the Gentiles that they are to have 
any part in this resurrection. 

When we take into consideration the meaningless, 
incongruous jargon that makes up this book of Eze- 
kiel, this wild vision of this valley of dry bones leaves 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 287 

us a mighty slimsy hope of a resurrection were there 
nothing else known upon which to rest a hope of an- 
other life, or continued life. 

Friends, I have no less faith in this doctrine of the 
general resurrection of the body when Gabriel blows 
his horn than I have to any of the orthodox creeds. I 
freely own that this is the only life we have ever tried, 
and if this could be permanent, and sickness and pain 
were unknown, and we could have things as we think 
they should be, the most of us would vote to stay 
rather than take the chance of what may lay beyond 
this life. But here we have no option ; so let us toil on. 
Whether the resurrection of the body be true or no, 
we will let Ezekiel rest. 

Our investigation now brings us to the prophet 
Daniel. 

The only way I can look at this book of Daniel is 
that it has been a prize story; that at some time in 
some ancient school there has been a prize awarded to 
the one who could weave the best piece of fiction, with 
Israel's God for the subject. I think the author of 
Daniel has won the first prize, and the author of the 
book of Jonah has won the second, and these two pieces 
of literature have found their way into the Bible. That 
the book of Daniel is pseudonymous, and is entirely 
disjointed from all the rest of the Biblical connections 
except the Jewish captivity, is painfully apparent to 
the one who may wish to believe, and strikingly so to 
the one in search of the truth. 

Now, if the reader cares to take pains to look it 
up, you will find the close of Nebuchadnezzar's reign 



288 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

recorded in 2 Kings xxv. 27-30. You can then turn 
to Jer. lii. 31-34, and you will find the same thing re- 
corded again in the same language, or the same words. 
That Evil-merodach succeeds Nebuchadnezzar: and if 
Nebuchadnezzar was turned out to grass for seven 
years and then reinstated upon the throne, here would 
certainly have been the time to have recorded this 
strange history. 

This story of Daniel is not written as if the writer 
had any thought that it was to be believed. It sounds 
as though it had been done to amuse children, and make 
them laugh, because of the ludicrity of the tale. Now 
here in the case of this first wonder which Daniel did, 
to tell the King his dream which he had forgotten, and 
then give the wonderful interpretation. The King al- 
lows he is converted to Israel's God clear through, that 
there never was another such a God as this God of 
Daniel's, and then the very next thing we hear, he is 
just as much of a heathen again as ever, and Daniel 
has got to go at it and convert him all over again. 

History repeats itself; this is what the Israelites did 
continually. Now, right on the heels of Neb's conver- 
sion and his acknowledgment of the greatness of Dan- 
iel's God, just for a moment consider the dimensions 
of this image of gold that this King has erected in the 
plain of Dura. Ninety-five feet high and nine feet 
square nearly (see description). This huge shaft of 
gold the King has placed on end, with the decree that 
when certain musical instruments are twanged, all his 
subjects must fall down and worship this image. — This, 
perchance, is where the worship of gold had its initia- 
tive, which extends to our time. — When certain of his 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 289 

subjects inform the King that certain Jews whom he 
has exalted had not worshiped according to his law, he, 
in a fit of rage and fury, commands them brought be- 
fore him ; he then repeats his decree and tells them that 
failure to render obedience means that they are to be 
cast into a fiery furnace made exceedingly hot. They 
remind the King of their God as the true and living 
God, and to whom all worship is due. This Nebuchad- 
nezzar had just acknowledged was the true and only 
God ; nevertheless, after a certain amount of bantering, 
he has them, three, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, 
by name, cast into this furnace, made seven times hot- 
ter than ever before. 

When this King saw them enjoying themselves in this 
furnace, walking to and fro with the fourth one, the 
King is again mightily astonished, and is converted the 
second time and again speaks in unmeasured terms of 
the greatness of Israel's wonder-working God, and has 
these three Hebrews promoted. He then, in due time, 
goes to sleep and dreams again of an immense and 
wonderful tree, the significance of which his magicians, 
soothsayers, and astrologers could not make plain — 
what such a tremendously widespread tree might mean. 
So Daniel was sent for again. This dream puzzles 
Daniel for one hour; but the King assures him of suc- 
cess, and to have patience. Then Daniel, with God's 
help, told the King that this big tree stood for or rep- 
resented the King himself, his prowess ; that it was to 
be cut down, but the stump was to remain alive until 
seven times passed; that he (the King) was to be re- 
duced to a state of beasthood and subsist on grass 
seven years, and be wet by the dew of heaven, and the 



290 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

rain and snow, until the expiration of this time, and 
then he was to be reinstated again upon his throne. 
This did not seem to impress Neb' very profoundly, 
for one year later we find him boasting in an undue 
manner of his prowess ; but before the boast was fin- 
ished there came a voice from heaven, " saying, O King 
Nebuchadnezzar, thy kingdom is departed from thee " : 
so this same hour was this thing fulfilled, and Nebuch- 
adnezzar found himself driven out into the wilds, where 
he ate grass as mindless as a cow-kine, as Daniel pre- 
dicted to him, till his hair was grown as eagles' feathers, 
and his nails as birds' claws. 

Then, at the end of this time, he lifted his eyes to 
heaven and his understanding returned: and he blessed 
the most high. Just hear what he says after his meta- 
morphosis (Daniel iv. 36, 37): "At the same time 
my reason returned unto me; and for the glory of my 
kingdom^ mine honor and brightness returned unto me; 
and my counsellors and my lords sought unto me; and 
I was established in my kingdom, and excellent majesty 
was added unto me. Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and 
extol and honor the King of heaven, all his works are 
truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in 
pride he is able to abase" 

Is there pleasure in believing this book of Daniel? 

Between chapters four and five in this book of Dan- 
iel there is a hiatus ; the chronologer places it at thirty- 
one years ; but he has no more authority for this than 
have we. How this comes about we cannot tell : whether 
it was the taste of the writer to leave this gap, or 
whether there has been valuable matter lost to the 
world, or whether some of the councils clothed with 



PROGRESSIVE AGE, OF REASON 291 

godly authority have concluded there was a quantity 
of this book that was not of God, we cannot tell, but 
I think we have plenty of this prophecy left with us. 

In chapter five is recorded Belshazzar's historic 
feast. The wonders accompanying this feast have been 
a theme for the poet's muse and the painter's brush; 
they have been set to song and chanted by the choir 
of the sanctuary. This feast has many times been the 
text for the eloquent preacher, and has without doubt 
been the means of converting many a sinner and bring- 
ing him into the fold of God. 

Spiritualists have also made use of this marvelous 
hand that wrote this strange communication upon this 
palace wall to help bridge the chasm between ancient 
and modern Spiritualism. 

But Reason says, while this account may be indi- 
rectly of some value to the cause of Truth, but it is 
chained to so much that Truth and Reason must re- 
ject, that this hand that wrote this strange message 
that none but Daniel could read, must be relegated to 
the realm of fiction. 

The most rational conclusion that we can arrive at 
is that the author of this book of Daniel has drawn 
from the school of those whom Israel's God has so 
detested, those who held communication with familiar 
spirits, and in this way phenomena of this nature was 
known to be, and he has woven this phenomenon into 
his legend. 

This book of Daniel is a strange quantity, and one 
to study it carefully, if not blinded by bigotry, finds 
his mind divided between two opinions : First, that the 
author in his blind zeal has concluded that God after 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

the Jewish captivity had not been held up in the light 
that he should be before the world, and that the old- 
time wonders were growing dim, and there was need of 
some fresh reminders — some stunners of miracles for 
the kings that had made them captive, to show the 
world that Israel's God was yet alive and doing busi- 
ness, even though his chosen had been reduced to slav- 
ery. Either this, or it was written as a burlesque on 
the behavior of Israel's God and the Old Testament 
miracles. Did the author ever anticipate that this pro- 
duction of his would ever be believed? Could he ever 
have dreamed of what its future might be? In the 
book of Ezra is the account of the kings Darius and 
Cyrus, but not one thing in this book of Ezra or any 
portion of the Scripture is Daniel mentioned outside of 
this book bearing his name. 

Nebuchadnezzar's reign ends, according to 2 Kings 
xxv. 27, 588 e. c, and his successor ascends to the 
throne. But this is not Belshazzar, his son, nor is 
there any such king spoken of in this connection. 

It is apparent that Belshazzar was created only to 
figure in this episode, and then sinks into " innocuous 
desuetude." In proof of this, please read the last 
chapter of 2 Chronicles and the first chapter of Ezra. 

Belshazzar was slain and Darius assumes rule of the 
kingdom. Then observe the paltriness that follows, 
which results in King Darius' conversion. How by sub- 
terfuge Daniel, in consequence of his fidelity to Israel's 
God, is cast into a den of lions. God sends his angel 
and seals the lions' mouths, so Daniel is not harmed. 
Now consider, Darius has Daniel removed from this 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 293 

dangerous place and his accusers are served to the same 
" sass," not only his accusers, but their wives and chil- 
dren. Then God's angel unmuzzles these lions and 
the people are reduced to smithereens ere they reach 
the bottom of the den. Just think of it, their wives and 
children had to be cast in, so that the Scripture can 
be given to us in good measure. There has in all of 
these accounts got to be a vast amount of innocence 
sacrificed, or this God does not seem satisfied. 

After this tragedy of the lions, King Darius is con- 
verted. See Dan. vi. 25-28 : " Then King Darius 
wrote unto all people, nations and languages, that 
dwell in all the earth; Peace be multiplied unto you, I 
make a decree, That in every dominion of my kingdom 
men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel: for he 
is the living God, and steadfast forever, and his king- 
dom that which shall not be destroyed, and his domin- 
ion shall be even unto the end. He deliver eth and res- 
cueth, and he worketh signs and wonders in heaven 
and in earth, who hath delivered Daniel from the den 
of the lions. So this Daniel prospered in the reign of 
Darius, and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian." 

It would seem from this text that King Darius, 
through faith derived from " Daniel and the den of 
lions," makes and issues a decree that is to settle the 
God question for all. 

See Daniel vi. 25, 26: "Then King Darius wrote 
unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in 
all the earth; ... 7 make a decree, That in every 
dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before 
the God of Daniel." Does it appear that this has been 
fulfilled? 



294 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

The book of Daniel is a gratuitous offering: by 
whom, we never may know ; and the wonder stories and 
prophecies Reason must reject with all the rest, as 
well as the God they were written to magnify and 
extol. 

The greatest joy I find in the study of the Scripture 
and in the prophecies is that there is nothing to them 
that helps substantiate this world-wide and century- 
spanning delusion. The prophecies refer to nothing 
that is claimed of them — that a Messiah or Savior is 
promised. The present situation and a prognostica- 
tion as to how they are to get out of their present di- 
lemma is all that any of them were at the time proph- 
esying about, and we are deceived when we believe any- 
thing to the contrary. Leaving prophecies of Christ 
entirely out of the question, if you strike a text that 
may read rational now and then, it will immediately be 
tenfold offset by that which contradicts in language the 
most absurd and irrational. For example, turn to 
Hosea xii. 6, 7: "Therefore turn thou to thy God: 
keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God con- 
tinually. He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are 
in his hand: he loveth to oppress" 

Here is another example from this same prophet 
(Hosea xiii. 16): "Samaria shall become desolate; 
for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall 
by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces 
and their women with child shall be ripped up." This 
is a fair sample of God's love and mercy throughout 
the whole of this Old Testament, or the Jews' Bible. 
As I may have said, I still say that there is not a 
single sentence in these prophecies that predicts of a 



PROGRESSIVE AGE, OF REASON 295 

Messiah or Savior, such as orthodoxy is preaching of 
to-day. 

CHAPTER XXIV 

The prophets, seme of them, prophesied of a king 
to rule Israel; this would seem but natural, that they 
were in captivity. This is what the Jews of our time 
claim, that this is all that is meant by the prophecies ; 
and why have not they the best right to interpret their 
own Bible? 

This Old Testament could be no more to us Gentiles 
than is the Al Koran or the Zend-avesta or the Chinese 
Bible, were it not that the Catholic priesthood, when 
they concluded to deify Jesus Christ, thought it would 
strengthen their claim to have him heralded by proph- 
ecy, and these old Jewish records happened to be the 
thing at hand, as they were so incongruous and ad- 
mitted of so much duplicity that they could be made 
to prophesy of most anything one might wish, they 
were therefore chosen. 

I would feel perfectly safe and perfectly willing to 
challenge the Pope himself, or any orthodox church- 
man, of whatever creed, or however broad his phylac- 
teries or the hem of his garments, however many theo- 
logical schools he may have graduated from, or how- 
ever many theological seminaries he has stood at the 
head of, that he cannot find one sentence among what 
are called the prophecies, or in the whole of the Old 
Testament, for that matter, that Reason can construe 
that any such personage as Jesus Christ is referred to 
or thought of. Then, I would ask, what does this Old 
Testament Scripture amount to? Not one thing that 



296 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

is claimed for it. As strange as it may seem, the very 
thing that this jealous, vindictive God has centered 
his Godship against is the only thing of any value, and 
this he denounces or abnegates under restrictions of 
death, from Genesis to Malachi. That is the school to 
whom the woman of En-dor and Huldah the proph- 
etess belonged. Speaking of challenging the educated 
churchman, the truth is, the higher he is learned the 
farther he would be from accepting any such challenge. 
When he has investigated along these lines carefully 
he would be more liable to assume the position of Prof. 
Foster, whom I made mention of a few pages back ; or 
he will commence to shout as did the Greeks of old, 
u Great is Diana of the Ephesians," and kick up such 
an orthodox dust that he is lost in the cloud, till Rea- 
son concludes not to waste ammunition by random 
shots. 

Now, from Daniel to the conclusion of the Jews' por- 
tion there are twelve of these alleged prophecies re- 
maining, called the lesser prophets. If they are the 
mouthpiece to this same God, I see no propriety in 
calling them lesser prophets, only as they are less pro- 
lix than the ones we have mentioned. 

We must of necessity let them pass ; they contain 
nothing that I feel that I need to make use of on my 
side of the argument, and I do not see how they can 
be of any use to my friends, the enemy, on the other 
side. For a purpose, however, I do need to make a 
brief mention of one of these prophets, Jonah. This 
story of Jonah and the whale has given birth to a 
proverb, that when a thing is told that sounds incred- 



PROGRESSIVE AGE, OF REASON 297 

ulous, the rejoinder is that it sounds "fishy" — refer- 
ring to Jonah and the whale. This story of Jonah 
nobody of any thought pretends to believe, and when 
this falls, his whole prophecy must fall. This story of 
Jonah and Nineveh, however, teaches the best moral 
of anything in the Old Scripture, from my viewpoint. 
Here in this case God did forgive, and gave his reason 
for it — because there must have been so many innocent 
to suffer if Jonah's prophecy had been fulfilled. 

But what I wished to speak of here is that some time 
since I read a long and learned lecture by a highly edu- 
cated churchman, his subject being "The Divinity of 
Christ," and this being based upon his miracles. After 
he felt that he had established his claim, he then pro- 
ceeds to impress upon his hearers that the Old Testa- 
ment miracles are all solved because Christ accepts 
them all; he rejects none. And if we believe in Christ, 
it follows we must believe whatever he believed, and 
since Christ quotes these miracles promiscuously, we 
are in duty bound to believe them all, Jonah, in the 
whale's belly included. See Matt. xii. 40: "For as 
Jonah mas three days and three nights in the whale's 
belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three 
nights in the heart of the earth." 

Now, reader, I do not believe Jonah was three days 
and three nights in the whale's belly, even though the 
writer of this book of Matthew makes Christ say so. 

I would be pleased to take up the New Testament 
examination now, but there are a few books of the Old 
that I must speak of first. We will now let the proph- 
ets rest, only as we may refer to them from the New 
Testament. 



£98 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

This brings us back to the books of Chronicles. 
Chronicles has been spoken of, and we cannot take up 
the time much farther with these two books. It is im- 
possible to know who the author of these two books 
is, or why they should have been written, or why they 
should have been included in the canon : they certainly 
add nothing to the strength of the claim. It is the 
same account given us in another dress, or, rather, a 
synoptic of the account up to the time of Ezra. There 
is much disparity between the two accounts. There is 
one thing I would call your attention to. See 2 Chron. 
xxi. 15 to 20, and xxii. 1, 2. By carefully reading 
this account you will see that Ahaziah is two years 
older than his father, Jehoram. The Master says all 
things are possible with God; but I would ask, Can 
God make a son older than his father? 

Ezra. — The book of Ezra contains an account where 
the Jews return from Babylon to Jerusalem to rebuild 
the temple and repair the city under permit by Cyrus, 
King of Persia. There is nothing in this book that 
bears any relevancy to the case, so we will dismiss it. 

Nehemiah. — The book of Nehemiah contains noth- 
ing that can militate against our claim or for our 
opposers. It narrates upon the rededication of the 
temple and the wall of Jerusalem, and to a closer ob- 
servance of the law of Moses ; of divorcing themselves 
from their strange wives, which was thought to be the 
cause of their afflictions. See xiii. 26, 27: " Did not 
Solomon King of Israel sin by these things? yet among 
many nations was there no king like him, who was be- 



PROGRESSIVE AGS OF REASON 299 

loved of his God, and God made him King over all 
Israel: nevertheless even him did outlandish women 
cause to sin. Shall we then hearken unto you to do 
all this great evil, to transgress against our God in 
marrying strange wives? " We will leave the reader 
to make his or her own comment upon this. 

The Book of Esther. — This book can in no way 
be particularly essential to our work, as the word God 
does not once occur in the whole book: and since God 
is not named, I do not see why we should take up val- 
uable time with this book. It is a silly, unreasonable 
narrative; it is, however, unique in one respect: it is 
a Bible narrative with the miraculous left entirely out, 
and I do not see why the Bible-builders should have 
thought this book anything that could enhance the 
value of their claim. 

Vashti, King Ahasuerus' wife, who refused to come 
before the King to display her beauty, near the close 
of his seven days' debauch, is the one most worthy of 
admiration in this story. The morals of this book are 
exceedingly bad; but is the Old Testament a place to 
look for good morals? This book of Esther has been 
woven into nursery stories and taught to the little 
boys and girls, how beautiful was Esther and how great 
her fidelity for her race, until it is needless for me to 
dilate Upon it here, since it is valueless on either side 
of the case. 

Job. — The next book to pass under review is Job. 
The book of Job does not properly belong to the Bible. 
The book of Job is an allegory. The God spoken of 



300 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

in Job is no relation to Israel's God — at least, if they 
are related, it is very distant. To believe this book of 
Job literally one has necessarily got to admit of a 
plurality of Gods, and Job's God has a plurality of 
sons ; while the orthodox God has only one begotten 
Son, and God and this Son are one and inseparable. 
The book of Job is said to be the oldest book of the 
Bible. I do not see anything throughout the whole 
story of Job that warrants any such conclusion. There 
is not one sentence or phrase that affords one iota of 
data to serve as a guide whether this book was written 
fifteen hundred and twenty years before Christ, as the 
chronologers have fixed it, or several hundred years 
after. Job hails from the land of Uz ; where Uz is, I 
must acknowledge my ignorance; it may have been a 
state in the lost Atlantis for aught I know. Did the 
chronologer know of this land, and the corner where 
Job's plantation lay, and did he have a history of Uz ? 
If so, he should have made a footnote of it, so we all 
might better understand. This land is not spoken of 
again in the whole Bible, I do not think, nor have I 
ever heard of such a country except in connection with 
this book, Job. The God of Job averages better than 
Israel's Jehovah; he forbade the Devil or Satan from 
quenching the vital spark, otherwise he could toy with 
Job to his heart's content. This looks cruel, but God 
seemed to think as did Shakespeare, " All's well that 
ends well." So God has Job reinstated in great shape ; 
he doubles all his live stock, but his first seven sons 
and three seem to be irretrievably lost. This does not 
look like a fair deal with them, but Job is placated 
with the same number of new sons and daughters, and 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 301 

these were likely just twice as good as the first lot; 
this at least is necessary to have it all tally. 

When Job is at his very worst, God seems to have 
two varmints that he desires to impress upon Job's 
mind that are indeed terrible to contemplate. His 
"Behemoth" and his "Leviathan" would certainly be 
terrible to encounter, and I hope I will never have to 
face them, and I have no particular fear that I ever 
will. 

The learned vicar has been known to stand before 
his congregation and instruct them that there never 
was such a personage as Job: and when Job goes, the 
whole story must of necessity follow, so all we have 
remaining is the moral of the strain, which is of but 
little worth. 

The book of Job, the truth-seeker will observe, is 
but a piece of fiction, and when it was written or by 
whom can make no difference to us, any more than 
does the story of AH Baba and the Forty Thieves " ; 
nor is the moral as good. 

The Psalms. — We are now up against the Psalms. 
Without doubt, if the question was asked all the Sun- 
day school scholars throughout Christendom, " Who 
wrote the Psalms ? " the answer would invariably be, 
" David." This the investigator will discover is a mis- 
take; because these psalms cover the whole epoch from 
the time David commenced to make history to the time 
the Jews return from Babylon to repair the temple 
and the broken wall of Jerusalem, five hundred and 
sixty-one years after David's time, according to the 
marginal dates ; so this must eliminate or relieve David 



302 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

from a large portion of this work. There are one hun- 
dred and fifty of these Psalms ; it is not probable to 
my mind that David ever wrote one of them. The 
one who reads the history of David would not discover 
one thing that could lead him to think he was ever 
engaged in writing songs. It is evident they have been 
written, but by whom, nobody can tell. It has been 
thought by some that where it reads at the headings, 
" A Song of David," that the correct statement would 
read, " A Psalm to David," which sounds much more 
rational, as it has always been the lot of kings to 
have in their train those who are trying to pander 
for favors from the throne; or David may have had 
a poet laureate to write odes for him, as have kings in 
our time. 

These Psalms are a large collection of songs, all 
that could be gathered together at the time of the 
building of the canon. And who the composers were 
can make no difference to us. They are of no conse- 
quence to prove the Bible a revelation of God, no more 
than the same number of hymns and national songs 
of the present day would be. So we must let them 
remain and let the good church people enjoy them. 

We are now up to the literature of " Solomon the 
Wise." Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Solomon's Song 
are all ascribed to Solomon. We are taught from the 
catechism that Solomon is the wisest man recorded in 
the Scripture. The religious enthusiast may still tell 
you that Solomon is the wisest man the world has ever 
known. Do these three books impress you that this is 
so? There are a few sayings among his proverbs that 
may rise to the level of mediocrity, but the greater 



PROGRESSIVE AGE, OF REASON 303 

portion of his proverbs fall far below the line. He, 
however, recommends us in the pursuit of wisdom, and 
this is well; but does his conduct prove that he prac- 
ticed what he recommends? King Solomon's advice on 
the woman question makes one think of a reformed 
drunkard lecturing on temperance. He no doubt speaks 
from experience. 

King Solomon's second literary effort is Ecclesiastes. 
It appears from the first verse of this book that Solo- 
mon did some preaching between times, with all the 
rest. This verse says," The words of the preacher, the 
son of David, King in Jerusalem." None but Solomon 
answers to this description. And what does Solomon 
preach, what doctrine? He preaches stark material- 
ism. Though God made this free donation of superior 
wisdom, so he was the admiration among the kings 
and queens of the world; but just think of it — he 
preaches unadulterated materialism! 

In his proverbs he recommends wisdom, but when 
he stands up in the pulpit he tells us all is vanity and 
vexation of spirit. See i. 13-18. King Solomon's ma- 
terialism is not sweetened with one ray of hope of a 
hereafter. This is worse than Thomas Paine or R. G. 
Ingersoll. They both expressed a hope of a future 
life, but Solomon none. They are anathematized by 
orthodoxy as hell-doomed infidels, while King Solo- 
mon's memory passes adown the corridors of time as 
the world's wisest man. I will give you a text which 
is the keynote of his preaching. See ix. 5, 6: "For 
the living know that they shall die: but the dead know 
not anything, neither have they any more a reward; 
for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love 



304 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished: 
neither have they any more a portion forever in any- 
thing that is done under the sun." 

He continued in this same strain to the last two 
verses of his discourse. If it is one sermon, it is rather 
prolix, but not longer than has many times been reeled 
off. These last two verses of Ecclesiastes one cannot 
help but observe is an interpolation; that is, another 
writer or preacher has concluded that King Solomon's 
sermon needed a nub at the conclusion of some other 
different material. 

Whoever wrote the book of Ecclesiastes none may 
know; Solomon may have written it. It certainly is 
not a piece of literature that I should suppose any of 
the old saints would contend for. How much revela- 
tion of God it contains is the only part that can in- 
terest us. How much does it, think ye? 

King Solomon concludes his literary career with a 
canticle. Was this sung at the close of his sermon? 
It is christened "The Song of Songs." 1 Kings iv. 
32 says* 6 He spake three thousand proverbs, and his 
songs were a thousand and five. 99 One of these songs 
finds its way into the Bible as a part of God's revela- 
tion to man. This, we have a right to presume, is his 
best song, else the Bible-builders have made a grave 
blunder in their choice. The question that suggests 
itself is, what could the other thousand and four have 
been like? As a literary effort, I do not think I ever 
saw or heard of its being excelled for idiotic drivel. 
The thing about this " song of songs " that makes it 
interesting to the investigator is the headings of the 
seven sections of this canticle. Here are the headings 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 305 

of the first chapter of the King James version : " The 
church's love unto Christ; (5) she confesseth her de- 
formity; (7) and prayeth to be directed to his flock; 
(8) Christ directeth her to the shepherds' tents; (9) 
and shewing his love to her; (11) giveth her gracious 
promises; (12) the church and Christ congratulate one 
another." 

There are seven of these chapters, which necessitates 
that this falsehood and deception may be multiplied 
by seven that the aggregate may be reached. The 
author of this canticle had no more thought of Christ 
or the church and refers to it no more than did the 
author of " Barbara Allen." The lesson to be drawn 
from Solomon's song is the way things have been tor- 
tured and strained to have Christ heralded by the Old 
Testament Scripture. Even Solomon, the idolator, the 
libertine, the materialist, is here, in this idiotic drivel, 
made to prophesy of Christ, which is enough to make 
the churchman blush, if he has any sense of the ludi- 
crous. If the Bible-makers would pervert things and 
try to deceive in this glaring, flagrant manner here, 
what more faith can we have or what more need we to 
expect from them throughout what are called the 
prophecies, and all the rest of the Old Testament as 
well? 

Whether Solomon wrote this song or not can make 
no difference to us. What arouses wonder is that any 
council, clothed with authority to accept or reject mat- 
ter included in this canon, should have been so wanting 
in judgment as to have accepted this. But, reader, 
this same conclusion applies to every book of the Old 
Testament. Where is the book, I would ask, that Rea- 



306 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

son would say should be retained? Not one book, nor 
one chapter, nor one sentence, would Reason say has 
God had any more to do with than any other literary 
production upon the face of the earth ! One more word 
about Solomon: If any of the characters of the Old 
Testament ever communed with God in person, Solo- 
mon did, according to the account ; and what he asked 
was wisdom, and this is what God is said to have 
granted, and this is what we have to show for it — his 
record, his proverbs, his sermon, or Ecclesiastes, and his 
song. What think ye? Now we are up to Isaiah, the 
first of the prophets. Our examination is in on the 
prophets. So this brings us to the New Testament. 



CHAPTER! XXV 

Th£ New Testament — Or what is meant is the 
New Covenant, and the word covenant, according to 
Webster, means bargain. 

So what is meant is the New Bargain. Now the 
thing for us to do is to analyze this bargain, that we 
may thoroughly understand it and see if we really wish 
to become partisans in this deal. Now, my dear 
friends, there are a few things at the beginning of 
this examination upon which we all should agree. 

If this New Testament is an imposition, and if upon 
investigation it proves itself unworthy of belief and 
shows itself a priestly fraud, can there be any reason 
why we should not be unanimous in denouncing it as 
such? If, on the other hand, it withstands every rea- 
sonable argument brought to bear against it, then we 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON -307 

should all believe and shape our lives according to its 
teachings. 

I well understand I am dealing with a delicate sub- 
ject, one that is interwoven into the whole social fabric, 
so that it looks to many like sacrilege to speak in 
terms the least derogatory. The mystic chords of 
memory reaching back to the father's benediction and 
the mother's prayer are ties upon which fond memory 
reposes, and, like Eliza Cook's old arm-chair, " They 
are bound by a thousand bands to the heart, not a tie 
will break, not a link will start." 

To write or speak inimical of the teaching or of the 
Scripture of this New Testament looks to a great many 
good people like "vandalism." It looks akin to com- 
ing into your home with torch and ax, and ruthlessly 
destroying all held dear and sacred, and then for the 
destroyer to look upon the ruin he has wrought with 
a sneer of contempt. This is a mistake, dear reader: 
just as much a mistake as when the Christian mission- 
ary works to convert the heathen Chinese by placating 
him with the Christian religion in place of his joss- 
worship. 

What we should all welcome and accept and dili- 
gently search for is the Truth. Truth and Reason do 
not collide, they are ever in harmony. Truth is the 
guiding star of hope, and Reason points you to this 
star. 

Here is a thing I have said, but will repeat it here: 
"However great the following error may have been, 
and however long it may have held possession in the 
human heart, this can never make it true." Suppose 
for a time in regard to this New Testament Scripture 



308 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

you are deceived. Suppose, though your pastor has 
repeatedly announced this solemn declaration: That 
were it not for Christ's teachings, his crucifixion, resur- 
rection, and ascension, the world would be without one 
ray of light or hope of immortality, and that through 
Christ is life and immortality brought to light. These 
are mistakes, and are terribly misleading, as I will be 
glad to show you when we have worked our way up 
and removed the obstructions so we can obtain a clearer 
view. 

The agnostic skeptic has never been able to discover 
in the Scripture, neither the Old or New, anything but 
consummate fraud. I do not look upon the Scripture 
in this light, as I have before said; and while I find 
but little, yet there is enough to afford a clew, and 
this I consider of very great importance. 

We stand upon the line that cuts the two eternities, 
the eternal future and the eternal past: the pages of 
the past eternity have been written; and we are all 
making history as the sands of time flow from the 
future to the past. Are we benefited by what has been 
written? Most certainly we are, were it not for the 
knowledge, the experience and accumulated thoughts 
of the ages past, we would still be in the state of the 
primitive man. 

I do not expect to give you one original thought. 
It is from those who have thought before that enables 
me to indite these thoughts. But there is a power 
called discrimination which enables man to select from 
the vast accumulation of what has been recorded upon 
the scroll of the past eternity that which appeals to 
Reason, and can be proved by palpable demonstration, 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 809 

and to reject error and falsehood by applying the test 
of present-day logic. 

It should ever be borne in mind that Faith, and 
Belief, and Love, are things over which we have no 
control: these are emotions that own and possess us, 
not we them. 

The New Testament, though we have shown is built 
upon a false foundation and bolstered by a series of 
miracles and wonders that the power of discrimination 
and Reason tell us never happened ; but, notwithstand- 
ing all this, it contains a modicum of data that is of 
great value to the searcher of Truth. I shall hope to 
speak of this more fully when I get up to it. 

The New Testament, we are taught, is a fulfillment 
of the prophecies of the Old. If this is so, it must 
follow the fate of that upon which it was founded. 
That there ever was such a person as Jesus Christ has 
been a question much in dispute in ages past, and this 
question is not yet settled; and, from the nature of 
the case, can it ever be? This does not particularly 
matter. I believe there was a man about this time — a 
Jewish reformer — who taught a doctrine inimical to 
the Jewish traditions ; and if this were so, from what 
we have learned of the Jews, if they were clothed with 
power to execute or crucify one of their own for apos- 
tacizing from their creed, they would not hesitate one 
minute to do it. So this much we may then believe: 
that there was a man by that name about that time 
crucified. This is nothing pertinent to the case, as 
there have been thousands of martyrs, and all without 
doubt had a name. 

The Christ question resolves itself into this: The 



310 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

story of Eden, that we are all damned or doomed to 
death and hell through our first parents' disobedience, 
must from the evidence be lopped off. The claim that 
Christ was predicted by the Old Testament prophecies 
we have also got to lop off as untenable from failure 
of proof. So if this marvelous man came, as these 
Gospels claim, he came unannounced; and what he is 
said to have said and done, and whether it is believable 
and of great value to the world, we have these Gospels 
alone to guide us in our deliberations. 
Here is a self-evident proposition: 

1. That all the parts of a story may agree, yet the 
whole story may be false. 

2. That all the parts of a story may agree, and the 
whole story may be true. 

3. But if all the parts of a story do not agree, it 
is evident that the story is not all true, and where 
the parts are all unreasonable we are justified in re- 
jecting the whole. 

Now, the first thing that presents itself in the Gos- 
pel ascribed to Matthew is what is called the genealogy 
of Christ. There has been a great effort made to 
preserve the lineage of Christ from David; so the first 
chapter of Matthew starts off by giving the genealogy 
of Abraham to Joseph, the husband of Mary, the 
mother of Christ. 

Now, this shows that they have changed their plan 
from the one at the outset, or they would have traced 
this genealogy to Mary instead of Joseph ; by tracing 
it to Joseph, since Christ has no earthly father, puts 
Christ entirely out of the reckoning, and all of this 
research redounds to the negative side of the proposi- 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 311 

tion. This genealogy is given again by Luke, from 
Joseph to Adam. 

Now we will place these genealogies against each 
other for the purpose of perspicuity and comparison, 
beginning in both cases with Joseph. 



Christ 




2 Joseph 


23 Neri 


3 Heli 


24 Melchi 


4 Matthat 


25 Adeli 


5 Levi 


26 Cosam 


6 Melchi 


27 Elmodam 


7 Jauna 


28 Er 


8 Joseph 


29 Jose 


9 Mattathias 


30 Eliezer 


10 Amos 


31 Jorim 


11 Naum 


32 Matthat 


12 Esli 


33 Levi 


13 Nagge 


34 Simeon 


14 Maath 


35 Juda 


15 Mattathias 


36 Joseph 


16 Semei 


37 Jonan 


17 Joseph 


38 Eliakim 


18 Juda 


39 Melea 


19 Joanna 


40 Menan 


20 Rhesa 


41 Mattatha 


SI Zorobabel 


142 Nathan 


22 Salathiel 


43 David 


Christ 




2 Joseph 


4 Matthau 


3 Jacob 


5 Eleazer 



312 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

6 Eliud 18 Ezekias 

7 Achim 19 Achaz 

8 Sadoc 20 Joatham 

9 Azor 21 Ozias 

10 Eliakim 22 Joram 

11 Abiud 23 Josaphat 

12 Zarobabel 24 Asa 

13 Salathiel 25 Abia 

14* Jechonias 26 Roboam 

15 Josias 27 Solomon 

16 Amon 28 David 

17 Manasses 

Now, if we are to believe this New Testament or be 
damned, what are we to do in this case? Consider this 
discrepancy in what we are taught is the inerrant 
Scriptures. Luke gives the number of generations from 
Christ to David as forty-three, while Matthew gives 
them twenty-seven. In these two lists there are but 
two names alike, David and Joseph. 

Now, if these books, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and 
John, were written, as the believer is taught, that they 
were recording this history as it transpired, and as 
they were in company with each other, as we are taught 
to believe, then why should there be in this case of 
giving this genealogy such a disparity as this? 

This must of necessity awaken doubt, and doubt is 
not belief. 

If it was understood and agreed upon that four of 
these disciples are to record these transactions as they 
occurred, would not people then, as now, talk these 
wonders over and compare records and have them prac- 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 313 

tically the same? This same reasoning would apply 
if there were a concerted effort to fabricate and float 
a falsehood for any selfish purpose, and it is to be 
between four individuals, in the main the parts of the 
story should agree better than do these Gospels. 

But the truth is, these Gospels were never intended 
or expected to be read or criticised by the outside 
world: they were to be the exclusive property of the 
priest, and read by him only; and the laity were to 
receive religious training from him by texts from the 
priests' choosing; and whether these Gospels would 
withstand the test of criticism was not at this time 
questioned or considered. But when the Reformation, 
through Martin Luther, gave this Bible to the world, 
we got it just as it was, with all of its discrepancies. 
Consequently, it is not reconcilable to Reason; their 
teachings are wholly irrational ; they lack cohesion, and 
must fall of their own weight. 

I believe, however, as I previously said, and I have 
good reason upon which to predicate this belief, that 
there was this man Jesus, and that he was a great and 
good man, and did and said wonderful things, at which 
the people greatly marveled. One reason for premising 
this belief is because we have marvelous Spiritual Me- 
diums in our time, and if the people were as ignorant 
and superstitious now as then, and the affairs of men 
were dominated by the priestly hierarchy as at that 
time, these would be either deified or crucified, as the 
priest might think best for the interest of his church 
at large. And if crucified, he might discover vast pos- 
sibilities in post-mortem deification, as in this case of 
Christ. 



314 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

My position is that this man Christ has been terribly 
slandered and lied about, as I expect to prove. 

Now we will postulate this assumption that Christ 
was a Psychic or Spiritual Medium of no common order. 
We will then proceed to examine these four Gospels 
briefly, and such of the apostles' writings as we may 
deem necessary to the unfoldment of what we expect to 
substantiate. 

Were it not for the boon of what by common consent 
is called Modern Spiritualism, which by the decree of 
destiny had its advent in the year 1848; were it not 
for this, I do not see what could save the world at this 
present materialistic, scientific age from being, may- 
hap slowly, but surely, precipitated to bald material- 
ism. Evolution is rapidly gaining ground, and evolu- 
tion and the Scripture will not harmonize, however 
great the effort to make them, nor will Spiritualism 
and orthodoxy. So, in the general wreck of what is 
called the Higher Criticism of the Bible ; evolution and 
the revelations brought to light through modern sci- 
ence: were it not that Spiritualism stepped into this 
breach at this juncture I do not see where a rational 
hope for post-mortem existence could find lodgment. 

The Nativity of Christ. — Now this story of the 
miraculous conception places Christ on no higher plane 
than the hundreds of gods that have preceded him. 
The gods of the Greek Pantheon, of Mohammed, and 
the gods of Egypt all had to be miraculously ushered, 
and Christ is no exception. 

This is too flimsy a story to spend much time upon. 
We have no reason to suppose but the human race at 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 315 

that time were subject to passions similar and common 
to the human race of to-day ; that the unfortunate girl 
is usually modest at such times and does not always 
answer to interrogations willingly ; and when we take 
into consideration the inhuman law that God gave to 
Moses relating to cases of this kind, she, without doubt, 
thought as did David, she was " in a great strait, and 
if she could successfully settle her trouble on the Holy 
Ghost, how can we blame her? Joseph, it appears from 
the account, loved her as he should, and this flimsy 
story lies between them, as you may see by referring to 
Luke on this same subject. See Luke i. 26-31. In 
Matthew i. 20, the angel of the Lord tells Joseph that, 
That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. 
And in Luke, Gabriel informs Mary along the same 
line. This is all the authority we have for this mirac- 
ulous conception, which is none whatever; and is no 
more entitled to belief than the miracles attached to 
Mahomet or Horus. 

From the birth of Jesus to the time he began to 
preach, which is said to be at the age of thirty, there is 
mention made of him but once, and this when he is twelve 
years old ; so here is a hiatus of eighteen years of this 
Messiah that is lost to the world, unless we supply this 
interim from the Apocryphal New Testament, which 
has been rejected by the councils. 

So what he is said to have said and said to have 
done in this brief space of from two to three years, is 
all we have to draw our conclusions from. 

The first interesting history after this miraculous 
birth is Joseph and Mary's flight to Egypt with this 



316 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

child Jesus, in consequence of a decree of Herod to 
kill all the male children throughout all Judea of a 
certain age, to make a certainty of putting this cer- 
tain one (Jesus) out of the way. This is given to us 
as straight history without miracle. 

Who can believe such a story as this? It must be 
remembered that Judea is a tributary to the Roman 
government, at this time under Tiberius Caesar's reign. 
The Romans, as bad as they were, were never guilty of 
an atrocity like this. While they carried on their con- 
quests and were very aggressive, but they were not so 
depraved, nor was Caesar so brutish that he would order 
or tolerate such inhumanity by one of his subordinates. 

Again, if this were true, here is John the Baptist, of 
about the same age, who would certainly have been 
among the children slain if this tale were true, for his 
parents were not warned to flee as we have ever heard 
of. 

Again, is it reasonable that a whole province would 
submit to such a dastardly deed as this and take it out 
by just boo-hooing. This story is told only in Mat- 
thew. It is not pleasant to believe; there is no benefit 
to be derived from trying to believe it. Reason has 
good ground for rejecting it. I for one am glad to 
say I do not believe it. 

After Christ is baptized by John the Baptist, then 
this Devil comes to the surface again, to test this 
Junior God. See Matt. iv 1-10. Does it not beat all 
nature, this orthodox Devil? He seems to understand 
the Scripture better than the best of us ; and, what 
seems sadly strange, he seems to hold the balance of 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 317 

power; he seems to lead or carry Christ at will and 
places him where we would not suppose he would care 
to be placed. Apparently to satisfy himself as to 
whether he is worthy of the trust. 

He also makes the Savior fast longer than I would 
suppose he would wish to fast; then consider the alti- 
tude of this mountain where he and Christ with his 
mortal sight can see all the kingdoms of the world. 

It seems the Devil had some doubt in regard to salva- 
tion through Christ. And from Christ's own words 
I do not see why we should not have much solicitude; 
where he says, " Strive to enter in at the straight 
gate, for many shall strive and will not be able." 

Just as soon as this Devil has finished his work with 
Jesus, it seems he commences his ministry, but he hears 
that John the Baptist is cast into prison. From the 
account we cannot look at this in any other light than 
that Christ is alarmed for his own safety on hearing 
this and concludes to put a little more space between 
John and himself. See Matt. iv. 12. Now what sug- 
gets itself at this time is this, we are taught that 
Christ's first miracle, was changing water to wine. 

How much better, his first miracle to have lifted his 
old friend John out of prison, and thereby saved him 
from an untimely end. It would also have been a much 
better moral lesson left for posterity. We all know the 
blight and curse that drunkenness has caused through- 
out all Christendom, and does it not reflect sadly on 
Christianity that its founder should have wrought his 
first miracle for the purpose of prolonging this drunken 
debauch at this wedding feast at Cana of Galilee. See 
John ii. 1-11. 



318 PROGRESSIVE AGE, OF REASON 

Matt. iv. 17. Is given the date at which Christ 
commences to preach. Now can we lay the halo of 
Christianity to one side for a brief space, and place 
Reason in its stead, and consider what strides are taken 
in giving us this important history. We are given to 
understand that the Devil has just finished his work 
with Jesus ; he departs into Galilee upon hearing that 
John is in prison. (17.) He begins to preach. (18-19.) 
He wanders by the sea of Galilee, he sees two fishermen, 
he bids them follow him, which they do forthwith. (21.) 
On this same stroll he sees two others, Zebedee's sons, 
he calls them, they drop all and follow him. 

Now we have an account here of how he procures four 
of his disciples. (Matt. ix. 9.) We are informed how 
he gets Matthew, to whom this first gospel is accorded. 
In Matt. x. 1, He has his twelve disciples. He proceeds 
to commission them to preach. But they are to preach 
to none but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 
(7-8.) " And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of 
heaven is at hand, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise 
the dead, cast out devils; freely ye have received, freely 
give. 

Now, reader, turn to John i. Read this chapter care- 
fully and you will observe there is no relationship be- 
tween these two accounts of how Christ chose his twelve 
disciples. See John i. 35-40, " Again the next day 
after, John stood and two of his disciples (John's dis- 
ciples) And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, 
Behold the Lamb of God. And the two disciples heard 
him speak and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned 
and saw them following and saith unto them, What 
seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, where dwellest 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 319 

thou? He saith unto them, Come and see. They came 
and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day; 
for it was about the tenth hour. One of the two which 
heard John speak was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother" 

Now see Matt. iv. 18, "And Jesus walking by the 
sea of Galilee saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, 
and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for 
they were fishers. And he saith unto them, Follow me 
and I will make you fishers of men.' 9 

If you follow these two accounts up in regard to how 
these disciples were chosen you will see that the dis- 
parity is so great, that they are both invalidated to 
an extent sufficient to throw them both out of court, 
were such evidence offered in our courts of justice to- 
day. Yet we are to believe or be damned ! What are 
we to believe? When the more we investigate the more 
we are led to doubt. 

If Christ came in this miraculous manner that 
the clergy would have us believe; if he wrought the 
miracles he is said to have wrought, and what he is 
said to have taught is true, there is no person that could 
be more interested to know it than would I. I have 
just as much eternity before me as any other individual 
on earth or in heaven, or the other place ; and whether 
it be for weal or woe with me, none can be concerned 
more than am I. I do not wish to hazard my chance 
of the future on anything I do not consider tenable or 
believable or reasonable. Therefore I consider it expedi- 
ent to examine the Orthodox claims of the Scripture 
just as critically as any other claim in which I am 
profoundly interested, and to accept that which is best 
proven. Is this unwise? 



320 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

Now we will examine what Christ is said to have said 
and see if it is believable or pleasant to believe. 

In the two or three years he is said to have preached, 
we h k ave one sermon accorded to him. How came this 
one to be preserved? Was there a stenographer, there 
in the mountain, who reported it verbatim, so that we 
get it undefiled? Suppose it comes to us just as spoken 
by Jesus ; let's analyze and see what we have got. See 
Matt, v., vi., vii., to verse seventeen, we get nothing that 
can possibly be assimilated as food for a hungry soul. 
Verse 5, "Jflessed are the meek for they shall inherit 
the earth," Now this is as rational to me as any of 
these beatific declarations, and as his words are not to 
pass away, what are we to understand by this? Are 
we to understand that those who are aspiring to own 
the earth and have the lion's share already, that it is 
owing to their excessive meekness? Are the multi-mil- 
lionaires of our country who are laying and have laid 
their plans to corner all the necessaries of life and make 
us pay them tribute for the right to live ; Is it because 
they are so meek? I must leave this to your con- 
sideration. 

See verse 17 of this sermon, " Think not that I am 
come to destroy the law or the prophets, I am not come 
to destroy but to fulfill. 99 (18.) "For verily I say 
unto you. Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or tittle 
shall in no wise pass till all be fulfilled, 99 

" Whosoever therefore shall break one of these last 
commandments and shall teach men to do so, he shall 
be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but who- 
soever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called 
great in the kingdom of heaven, 99 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 321 

Here Jesus endorses the law and the prophets in fact 
the whole Old Testament, tout ensemble, and enjoins 
upon us both faith and practice in every particular 
from the least to the greatest of these commandments 
in this law of Moses, that it may be well with us when 
we arrive at the gates of the kingdom. 

Now turn to verse 38 in this same sermon, before 
the echoes of this quotation have fairly died, he pro- 
ceeds to quote this same law for the purpose of con- 
demning it. " Ye have heard it said, an eye for an 
eye, and a tooth for a tooth." 

Now this is from the Law of Moses, given him by 
the Father, if any was so given, in the Old Scripture. 
Here see what he says, (39.) " But I say unto you that 
ye resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on 
thy right cheek turn to him the other also" 

Then follows the injunction to love your enemies, he 
here teaches many things, which later he contradicts in 
the most glaring manner. He tells us we are lost by 
not believing. That the wicked are to be burned with 
unquenchable fire. " Then shall he say also unto them 
on the left hand. Depart from me ye cursed 
into everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his 
angels." 

The things he enjoins, "to turn the left cheek when 
we have received a full blow on the right " and to love 
our enemies when they have done their utmost to do us 
injury and have succeeded, is demanding of us that 
which by nature we do not nor cannot inherit, in short, 
he demands that which is incompatible to human nature. 
While we might not seek vengeance, but to love our 
enemies, is to exact from us more than we are taught 



322 PROGRESSIVE AGE , OF REASON 

we are to expect to receive from the Father, or Christ 
himself. 

(vi. 25-29.) In this same sermon he enjoins upon his 
hearers to take no thought of the future, no thought 
for food, clothing or shelter: because the Gentiles seek 
after these things. 

Where are we Gentiles at? Is Christ what the Chris- 
tian claims, and yet would instruct his beloved in things 
that would lead to their annihilation? We are led to 
think he recommends this measure in order to go counter 
to the Gentiles, from what he says. The reader will 
observe that Jesus has no love or consideration for the 
Gentile throughout this book of Matthew. 

But the Omnipotent has endowed us with the faculty 
of self-preservation, and we know we all have to have 
a care of the future and our bodily needs and when 
a God or a son of a God tells us to throw this all up 
we have good ground for doubting his claim. You can 
see this lesson disavowed throughout all Christendom, 
and yet we must believe, (vii. 13-14.) In this sermon 
is this inflexible decree, about the two gates, the broad 
gate that leads to destruction, and the straight gate 
and narrow way that leadeth unto life, and few there 
be that find it. 

The people that heard this sermon, 'tis said, were 
astonished at his doctrine, and so am I. That this 
Savior who understood from the foundation of the 
world that at this time he was to become incarnate 
and reveal to mankind the mysteries of Godliness, and 
the only sermon that is preserved to consist of what this 
does, is enough to make one feel weary. It is but drivel 
and contradiction throughout. The best thing about 



PROGRESSIVE AGE, OF REASON 323 

this sermon is Christ never preached it. It is nothing 
but priestly fabrication, and a priest of but little 
sagacity or common sense at that. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

Dear friends the two most slandered personages that 
have ever occupied the mind of man, has been this imag- 
inary Father and his imaginary Son. The fabulous 
things that have been accorded to them, to hold them 
up in a most ridiculous light to the world, is certainly 
enough to make impartial justice put in a protestation. 
As I have said before, I have a cogent reason for 
believing that this man Jesus Christ, lived here on 
earth, and labored to reform his people, and to teach 
a better humanity, but he was in advance of the age in 
which he lived and was crucified. He was brought into 
life according to the law that governs in all cases of 
reproduction, and the miracles, as recorded in regard 
to his resurrection, and ascension, when reason and 
truth are brought to bear upon them dissolve to noth- 
ingness. 

Now we will note a few of the unreasonable things 
he is made to say, that we may see if there is joy and 
comfort in trying to believe them. The angels that 
heralded Jesus on that memorable night said, "Peace 
on earth ; good will toward men." 

We have spoken where Christ admonishes us to love 
each other, the golden rule, etc. Now let us note some 
counter passages of scripture ascribed to him. See 
Matt. x. 35, " For I am come to set a man at variance 



3M PROGRESSIVE AGE,, OF REASON 

against his father, and the daughter against her 
mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother- 
in-law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own 
household." 

Also Luke xii. 51-53, "Suppose ye that I am come 
to give peace on earth. I tell you, nay; but rather 
division. For from henceforth there shall be five in one 
house divided, three against two, and two against 
three. The father shall be divided against the son, and 
the son against the father; the mother against the 
daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the 
mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the 
daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law." 

Also Luke xiv. 25-26, " And there went great multi- 
tudes with him: and he turned and said unto them, 
If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and 
his mother, and wife, and children, and brother and 
sisters, yep, and his own life also, he cannot be my 
disciple." 

Again Matt. x. 33, "But whosoever shall deny me 
before men, him will I also deny before my Father which 
is in heaven." 

While Christ has enjoined upon us, to lavish our love 
upon our enemies, and those who would do us bodily 
harm, and would rob us of our coat and cloak. 

He then proceeds to instruct us that if we would 
be in tune with him and the Father, we must hate our 
friends and kindred, and all bound to us by the ties 
of consanguinity or affinity. 

I might adduce still much more along this line, but 
this is enough. Is there consolation and enjoyment in 
believing Christ the only begotten son of God and 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 3&5 

that he has left his covenant to mankind as long as 
time shall endure. 

"Whose words are not to pass away," and this is 
what it consists of: to obliterate every tie of affection, 
and love, from those who by nature have a right to 
claim it? To follow Christ in the above quotations, 
would be to sink ourselves below the level of the brute ! 

The only thing we can do in this life — environed as 
we are — is as far as we are able, to remember our 
obligations to our parents; those bound to us by the 
marital obligation and those to whom we are respon- 
sible for bringing into the world : then our friends and 
neighbors as far as we can: to the stranger give 
assistance when you find 'tis needed, and you can lend 
a helping hand: or even a friendly look or word; and 
sometimes what is great help is not to willfully hinder 
by calumny or aspersion. But to follow such instruc- 
tion as this accorded to Christ, would be to degrade 
ourselves below the most benighted nations of the globe ! 
What kind of a heaven would we find, were we to reach 
it by stamping from our natures everything that stands 
for humanity or decency? 

Reader you do not think the above passages pleasant 
to believe do you ? I certainly do not, and thanks be to 
the Infinite, Christ never has uttered such blasphemy as 
this ! I am going to stand up for Jesus. Suppose the 
name of Washington or Lincoln or any of our nation's 
benefactors should after they had passed on, have their 
history besmirched by such outlandish stuff as is 
ascribed to Christ? How soon you would denounce the 
calumniator as a liar and a villain. 

How then came such passages in the New Testament? 



326 PROGRESSIVE AGE OP REASON 

Do you ask? I went over this ground a long way back ; 
how our Bible was first compiled, in the reign of Con- 
stantine the Great. 

How plain it is, that this Nicene council composed of 
monks and priests, with Constantine as president. Con- 
stantine had his plans arranged to establish the Chris- 
tian religion by law. This meant that there would have 
to be a great sacrifice of innocent life and blood. And 
that this measure could be greatly facilitated, if pas- 
sages of this type were inserted in the canon; and as 
this canon was theirs exclusively, they being sole cus- 
todian, could therefore doctor or interpolate at will. 
The rest, I should think, would be an easy guess. 

This Scripture could then be inculcated or forced 
upon the Pagan, and by offering inducements to 
informers, and impressing continually upon their not 
highly developed minds morally, that the will of Christ 
was above all earthly things to be considered. And 
that it was right for one member of a family to inform 
against others, if such persisted in their Pagan wor- 
ship : they could then proceed to open their Holy book 
and do as Robert Burns once said, " Nail their murder 
freighted lie with Scripture." 

These black handed passages are powerless now to 
work such evil; but in the time of the Roman and 
Spanish inquisitions I do not suppose we can form any 
adequate conception of their awfulness ! 

The next thing that comes uppermost in my mind 
is the account of the Transfiguration of Christ. This 
it would seem is among the important things contained 
in the Scripture. For here is an account of ocular 
demonstration of two persons who have been a long 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 327 

time dead of reappearing and if these two actually 
appeared as stated, it certainly means a great deal 
to mankind here in his dark estate, if his Bible is his 
only light, because if these were alive then and returned, 
the rational conclusion is that they are still alive, and 
if they why not the generations all that have preceded 
Christ, and us as well, be still alive somewhere? 

I have heard this referred to many times from the 
pulpit as a great and wonderful revelation. Spiritualists 
also have used this text with which to battle their 
Orthodox friends. 

This account is recorded in Matt, xvii, in Mark ix, 
and in Luke ix. 

This story is familiar with you all : the difference in 
the accounts would not be sufficient to invalidate the 
claim: Luke says it was about eight days, while the 
other two say it was six days. 

Now here is what Christ promises preceding this 
transfiguration. See Mark ix. 1 : " And he said unto 
them, Verily I say unto you, That there be some of 
them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, 
till they have seen the kingdom of God come with 
power." 

We must admit that there was no great showing, 
when the kingdom came, but nevertheless were it true 
and this was the only manifestation of the kind recorded 
on the pages of the past, we would treasure it up and 
anchor our hopes thereto, That if Moses and Elias sur- 
vive the change called death, then why not we? Verse 
2, same chapter, says, "And after six days Jesus 
taketh with him Peter, James and John, and leadeth 
them up into a high mountain apart by themselves: 



328 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

and he was trans-figured before them." (4) "And 
there appeared unto them Elias (meaning Elijah I sup- 
pose) with Moses: and they were talking with Jesus" 

There is nothing about this account unpleasant to 
believe, I would be willing and even glad to believe it; 
it would be a good object lesson which I could use 
later. But though we would be glad to believe this 
story, it is without foundation and must be relegated 
to the realm of fiction, because it lacks rational proof. 
Matthew, Mark, and Luke, tells us this story of Peter, 
James and John. These last named have all written 
matter for this New Testament, or matter accorded to 
them, and there is not one word or hint that can be 
construed to touch upon this case by them. John in 
his gospel is tediously minute in unimportant details, 
while this most important story is not in the least re- 
ferred to : while he can speak of the crowing of a cock, 
this account of this transfiguration in which he (John) 
was one of the highly honored guests, emprivileged to 
see the " Kingdom of Heaven " for the purpose of giv- 
ing this fact to the world, we would infer ; yet is not in 
the least alluded to by him, neither is it by Peter 01 
James. Though ever so much we might wish to believe 
this account we cannot accept it for want of proof. 

Now we will compare these gospel accounts of the 
crucifixion and what immediately followed, and see how 
much of it is entitled to belief. 

John does not speak of an earthquake, nor one word 
about the sun being darkened, or nothing about the 
vail of the temple being rent, nor of the graves being 
opened, nor of the bodies of the saints which slept, 
arising and appearing to many. 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 329 

This also would be valuable history, and would be 
very impressive, and if this did happen it would have 
given this occasion world-wide publicity: and would 
not be confined to this account of Matthew alone as 
it is. 

The earthquake, the rending of the rocks, the open- 
ing of the saints' graves, and their appearing to many, 
should certainly have been spoken of by more than 
Matthew, and told in a very slovenly manner by him. 
It is not told as if expected to be believed. 

Here are two quotations relating to this subject: 

"Notice the story of the dead getting up out of 
their graves and going into the ' holy city ' and appear- 
ing to many." Does not this sound apocryphal? Where 
was the holy city? It certainly was not Jerusalem, the 
city over which Jesus wept, and that he compared to 
the fabled Sodom and Gomorrah, and in which he was 
killed. To who did these " saints " appear ? The use 
of one name here would have been a good thing. The 
fact is these stories were invented long, long, after their 
supposed author had gone to join his fathers in the 
other country. (Hull.) 

Quotation two, " How shall we excuse the supine in- 
attention of the Pagan and philosophic world to the 
evidences which were here presented by the hand of 
Omnipotence, not to their reason, but to their senses. 
This miraculous event, which ought to have excited the 
wonder, the curiosity and the devotion of mankind, 
passed without notice, in an age of science and history. 
It happened during the lifetime of Seneca, and Pliny 
the elder, who must have experienced the immediate 
effects or received the earliest intelligence of this prod- 



330 PROGRESSIVE AGE , OF REASON 

igy. Each of these philosophers in a laborious work, 
have recorded all the great phenomena of nature — 
earthquakes, meteors, comets, and eclipses, which in- 
defatigable curiosity could collect: both the one and 
the other have omitted to mention the greatest phe- 
nomena to which mortal eye has been witness since the 
creation of the globe." (Gibbon.) 

This miraculous phenomena following the crucifixion 
must also be lopped off for want of proof. 

My plan at the outset was to be as brief as possible 
with my examination of the Scripture, and this is still 
my aim, but I have now reached the point in amount 
when I expected this part of my work would be in, and 
yet I am not through, but I trust I will not weary you 
a great while longer. The general belief that these 
gospels were written by the ones whose names they 
bear, is a mistake, as research has conclusively 
proven. 

These four books all start with, " The gospel accord- 
ing to St. Matthew, etc. ; then look at the title page of 
your New Testament, and you will read translated out 
of the original Greek. Then consult your geography 
and see that Greece lies on the opposite side of an arm 
of the Mediterranean, consider the facilities for naviga- 
tion and communication at that time, and that Christ 
did not speak Greek, nor any of his disciples, and you 
will begin to conclude that our sacred New Testament 
Scripture is pretty far-fetched. 

Then consider the proneness of many people to wish 
to become conspicuous by being eye witnesses to some 
wonderful thing that has happened somewhere, some- 
time. As such we all have seen, and are ever willing and 



PROGRESSIVE AGE, OF REASON 331 

anxious to add to the original and supply new if neces- 
sary. When you look at this Scripture in this light 
you have made a good stride in the search of truth. 

Now I will make a brief quotation from the Encyclo- 
pedia Britannica: 

" No New Testament Canon, except a partial and 
unauthoritative one existed until the latter half of the 
second century; that is till the idea of a Catholic 
church began to be entertained. The Ebionites or the 
Jewish Christians had their favorite gospels and acts. 
The Gospel of Matthew was highly prized by them, 
existing as it did in various recensions. Other docu- 
ments, such as the Revelation of John, and the preach- 
ing of Peter. 

(Jewish — Christian history subsequently rewritten 
and employed in Clementine's Recognitions and Hom- 
ilies) were also in esteem. Even so late as 170-175 
Hegesippus, a Jewish Christian used the gospel accord- 
ing to the Hebrews, and despised Paul's writings, in 
conformity to the leading principle of the party to 
which he belonged, viz, the identity of Jesus' words 
with the Old Testament. 

It is the opinion of scholars that really no authori- 
tative Canon was made until about the middle of the 
fourth century, when Constantine appointed Eusebius 
to give the world a Canon, which he did. 

This is corroborative of what I have before said, 
That the " Mother Church or Catholic," was custodian 
of this " Holy Keep " for many centuries. They alone 
are responsible for all the recensions and redactions 
that it has underwent for this long period of time, 
and the internal evidence as to its truth or falsehood, or 



332 PROGRESSIVE AGE , OF REASON 

its rationality is all we have to guide us in our conclu- 
sion. 

We can do no better than to select texts promiscu- 
ously from these gospels, and judge for ourselves, 
whether they are of divine or human origin. 

We will aim at this time to make selections from 
what Christ is said to have said, I have spoken of 
where Christ admonishes his hearers " to take no 
thought of the morrow." (Matt. vi. 25-34.) Now 
please turn to Luke xvi. 1-12. Please read this selec- 
tion, I will quote 9-11, " And I say unto you, make 
to yourselves -friends of the mammon of unrighteous- 
ness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into 
everlasting habitations. He that is faithful in that 
which is least is faithful, also in much: and he that is 
unjust in the least is unjust also in much. If there- 
fore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mam- 
mon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? 
And if ye have not been faithful An that which is 
another man's, who shall give you that which is your 
own? " 

You will observe here is one admonition in direct 
contradistinction to the other. Now it is evident they 
cannot both be divine although they are both ascribed 
to Christ. The question then resolves itself into this. 
If Christ gave to his followers both of these lessons, 
there is certainly a mistake in the claim that he is 
Divine, any more than the rest of us, and if he has not 
given them who has, and if he gave the one and not 
the other, which one did he give? This is certain that 
if he gave the first he taught his followers, imbecile, 
improvidence, and if the latter, he taught downright 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 333 

dishonesty; irrational in either case, and where is the 
way out for the theologian. I must own I am not as 
anxious about the theologian as I am for the rest of 
us. I suppose this is because there are so many more 
of us. 

Here is a rational verdict in regard to these two 
scriptural lessons. 

They have both been concocted by the wily Catholic 
Priesthood. The first lesson is intended for the laity, 
to impress upon their minds the danger of riches, and 
the obstruction that this world's goods will be to spirit^ 
ual growth, and a proper preparation for eternal life. 

The second lesson is intended specifically for the Holy 
Papal See. That they by predilection and holiness 
are exalted above the transitory things of this world; 
therefore they can hold this " filthy lucre " in fee for 
the advancement of the kingdom of Christ, keeping a 
little for themselves, since " the workman is worthy of 
his meat." 

The next text I would speak from is in Luke xviii. 
18-30. The rich ruler who asked Jesus, "what he 
should do to inherit eternal life? " 

Jesus first rebukes him for calling him good, and 
informs him that there is none good but God. How 
bewildering is this since we are taught that Christ and 
God are coequal and coeternal, yet Christ declares he 
is not good. But he tells this ruler to keep the com- 
mandments; he then proceeds to call over certain ones 
that he is specially to observe : to which the ruler replies 
"he has kept these from his youth up." Then Jesus 
tells him he yet lacks one thing: the thing implied is 
poverty, for Jesus tells him to sell all that he has and 



334 PROGRESSIVE AGE , OF REASON 

distribute it to the poor, and he will then have treasure 
in heaven. 

Does this impress one as being of supra divine origin ? 
Is this a rational doctrine? That extreme poverty is 
a passport to eternal bliss, and wealth a sure passport 
to hell ! This is very illogical ; so much so that nobody 
believes it. The clergy takes no stock in this lesson 
of Christ's. The plan upon which the whole theological 
machinery is conducted testifies to their unfaith in 
what is here said. 

We are left to infer that if this rich young man, had 
replied that he had been lax in regard to these com- 
mandments, that by making corrections here he could 
have inherited eternal life and retain his wealth : but as 
it was he went away sorrowing. 

Jesus then proceeds to amplify upon what he has 
said, and says, " How hardly shall they that have riches 
enter into the kingdom of heaven. For it is easier for 
a camel to pass through a needle's eye, than for a rich 
man to enter into the kingdom of God." 

This knot of scripture has been such a stunner to the 
devoted corporation magnate, and the millionaire, and 
as such are useful factors in the church in these later 
days, that the clergy, has had to do some hard thinking 
in order to get a satisfactory adjustment to this diffi- 
cult problem. 

So they have constructed a gate in the wall of Jeru- 
salem, with the keystone to this mural arch so low that 
the camel has to be relieved of his load, and then get 
on his knees and kick himself through, though with 
considerable difficulty. I have seen this illustrated in 
the catechism with the camel on his knees and the driver 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 335 

holding on to the stem of the halter trying to per- 
suade the poor camel to pass through: typifying the 
way that the rich man can get in to the kingdom. This 
certain gate they have named the "needle's eye." 

The builders of this Scripture meant nothing of the 
kind ; whoever wrote it, here, meant what he said. 

In Matthew where this story is given it says the " eye 
of a needle," and in Mark it also says, " It is easier 
for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than 
for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." 

No, Mr. Rich Man, according to this Scripture you 
are barred, despite the strenuous efforts of the clergy 
to provide a place for you to crawl through, you are 
excluded. Now let us follow this history a step farther. 
Those that heard this decree, are seized with conster- 
nation, and are forced to ask, "who then can be 
saved?" Then Jesus to quiet their alarms, tells them, 
" The things which are impossible with men are pos- 
sible with God. How are we to understand this? 



CHAPTER XXVII 

Theology tells us that Christ and the Father are 
coequal and coeternal. In this first case his comparison 
of the camel and needle makes it utterly impossible for 
a rich man to get to this coveted place, heaven. Then 
he says it is possible with God, which reduces Christ to 
a common worldling, and makes the lesson up to this 
point meaningless or nil. We will now follow a step 
farther. Peter now raises the question as to what there 
was going to be in it for those who have thrown up 



336 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

business and have followed him, when he says, " Lo 
we have left all and followed thee." See same Luke 
xviii. 29, " And he said unto them. Verily I say unto 
you, There is no man that hath left house, or parents, 
or brethren or wife, or children, for the kingdom of 
God's sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this 
present time, and in the world to come life everlast- 
ing" 

Now let us pass this whole lesson under review : 

1. Christ makes the conditions impossible for a rich 
man to enter heaven. 

£. It is easy and possible when God gets on to the 
job. 

3. Those who have forsaken all and followed Christ 
are promised to be made rich in this world's goods and 
an abundant entrance at " St. Peter's gate." 

This lesson resolves itself into a " reductio ad absur- 
dum," as you will discover most of them do when put 
into the crucible of Reason. 

Christ teaches ; or these synoptics — as the three first 
gospels are called — teaches in a vague way in regard 
to a post mortem existence. John teaches the same. 
And this I firmly believe. But even this is so tortured 
and twisted as to make it look of little value, or what 
would be nearer the truth worse than valueless because 
the great majority are represented as going wrong, and 
this means according to their code endless suffering 
which would be worse than eternal unconscious sleep. 

A great error in regard to this Bible is to premise 
that the churches were founded upon it. The fact is 
just the reverse; the Bible has been founded upon, and 
by the churches. The Jewish church the Old Testa- 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 337 

ment, and the Catholic or Christian Church the New. 

Now let us examine the miracles accorded to Christ ; 
and Christ's ability to confer this miracle working for- 
ever to his disciples. 

It has been in fashion from man's earliest history 
to have gods with them more or less ; the Greeks at one 
time were said to have had some three hundred gods and 
demigods, and all of these gods in order to hold their 
job, had to work miracles, which they are all recorded 
to have done. 

What is a miracle? Here is what Webster says, " A 
wonder or a wonderful thing: but in theology an event 
or effect contrary to the established constitution of 
things : or a deviation from the known laws of nature ; a 
supernatural event." Miracles can be wrought only by 
Almighty power; as when Christ healed lepers saying, 
"'/ will, be thou clean," 

As the world has advanced in knowledge, the mirac- 
ulous has gradually disappeared. Telepathy, psy- 
chometry, clairvoyance, clairaudience, healing, in fact 
all that belongs to the realm of spirit manifestation 
drops from the realm of miracle, and takes its place 
within the province of natural law. Among these also is 
levitation, and externalization, and materialization the 
moving of ponderable bodies such as chairs, tables, etc. 
There is much more that I might name that was once 
classed as miracle, but are now understood differently. 

There is too in the realm of the occult what is called 
hypnotism, which is a proven fact, and it is a marvel 
how one well up in this gift will control his subject and 
astonish his spectators. 

While I cannot name here all of the phases of Spirit- 



338 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

ual manifestation they are understood by those who 
have made research into this subject, and to deny this 
makes one look downright ignorant and with such I 
would not wish to waste my time. 

But here is another phase I will name, because here 
is proof that it was known of, and employed at the 
time of the building of these gospels. Viz, Automatic 
writing. See Luke i. 59-63, relating to the christening 
of John the Baptist, "And it came to pass, on the 
eighth day they came to circumcise the child; and they 
called him Zacharias, after the name of his father. 
And his mother answered and said, Not so; but he 
shall be called John. And they said unto her, There 
is none of thy kindred that is called by this name. And 
they made signs to his father, how he would have him 
called. And he asked for a writing table, and 
wrote, saying, His name is John. And they marveled 
all" 

Now to one who has explored into the realm of the 
occult, it is clearly apparent, that an excarnate intelli- 
gence for some reason concluded to have this child 
named John. Although you will observe that John is 
not a Hebrew name, nor is it found in all the Old 
Scripture. This "intelligence" impressed Elizabeth, 
and these Jewish mutilators objected; and when the 
father was appealed to he calls for his writing table and 
this intelligence controls his hand, and writes, " His 
name is John." And then all of the bystanders " mar- 
veled:" which makes this phase of Spirit manifestation 
clear to the unprejudiced, Truth seeker. 

Now I will premise that all of the " miraculous " 
ascribed to Christ when priestly exaggeration is elimi- 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 339 

nated will all take their place harmoniously within the 
pale of " Psychic Phenomena " which is indeed mar- 
velous, but not what is termed "miracle." 

The history of Jesus Christ, his miracles ; the mirac- 
ulous conception; and the whole story of his nativity, 
from beginning to end are contradictory and unreason- 
able. His predictions of the end of the world places 
him on a level with Miller, and Old Mother Shipton, 
and all who have been so short sighted as not to have 
a slide in their predictions. 

This shows that Christ was but a man, and fallible 
as are the rest of mankind. His teachings as given are 
fallacious and the creeds upon which they are founded 
are also fallacious, and are a blight to civilization. 

Think ye dear reader, that there would be less of 
love in the world, less benevolence, less of charity, less 
benevolent institutions, and all that stands for the up- 
building of humanity, if these weird, unreasonable 
Priestly falsehoods were discarded, and our religion 
reset with the immortal gems of truth and reason? I 
tell you, No. 

But let us not digress too far from our subject. 
Christ's miracles and his ability to transfer this power 
to others. See Luke x. 1, Here Christ commissioned 
seventy to go into the cities to preach and heal the 
sick. (17-18) "And the seventy returned again with 
joy, saying Lord, even the devils are subject unto us 
through thy name. And he said unto them, I beheld 
Satan as lightning fall -from heaven." 

Reader does this sound as if it came from a supra 
mundane source? He (Christ) " saw Satan as lightning 
fall from heaven." The question is who were these 



340 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

devils that were so common at that time, and seem like 
the prehistoric animals to have become extinct ? Christ's 
miracles consisted to considerable extent in casting out 
these devils. And at one time he seemed rather un- 
christian in his behavior, in turning some of them loose, 
for he permitted them to enter into a large herd of 
swine causing their destruction by running down the 
steep hill into the sea, and they all were drowned ! This 
does not look like all around first-class Christianity, 
because these swine were valuable to the Gentiles, and 
they were made to suffer all of this loss, and then 
these devils were all set free again, for they would 
never remain in dead hogs, from the description we 
have of them. 

The arch Devil of to-day is the devil of ignorance; 
and the most successful way of casting him out is to 
supplant him with the weapons of Knowledge, Reason 
and Truth. 

These seventy disciples are nowhere else spoken of; 
they disappear and are never heard from again. 

But now let us give a brief consideration to where 
Christ commissions his chosen twelve of whom we hear 
so much. 

See Matt. x. 8. Here he calls unto him his twelve 
disciples, and gives them their charge. Verse 5, he says, 
" Go not into the way of the Gentiles and into any 
city of the Samaritans enter ye not; (6) But go rather 
to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" Here is what 
he tells them to do. (8) " Heal the sick, cleanse the 
lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils" This is easy, 
I could say the same to anybody, but would they do 
it? Did Christ's disciples ever raise the dead? There 



PROGRESSIVE AGE, OF REASON 341 

is no doubt but they would come as near to doing this 
miracle as would Christ himself. 

"Tis repugnant to our natures to wish the dead to 
return to their mortal bodies after the sickness and 
suffering is ended, and we know that they are dead and 
dissolution has commenced its work ; which work is com- 
menced as soon as the spirit leaves the body. Why 
should Christ wish to prove his power by such an 
unseemly demonstration as this? Why would he not 
have said, " A transition from the earth to the supernal 
world and taught his hearers the meaning of death, 
instead of the gloomy unmeaning mess that has been 
ascribed to him. 

I have spoken before of this subject "raising the 
dead" but will reiterate. There has never been a 
dead body restored to life. That there have been cases 
of suspended animation, and that such have been buried 
alive has been proven, and that others have narrowly 
escaped the same fate has been frequently recorded. 

This is a terrible thing, and a body should never 
be interred until there is certainty that life has 
departed. 

That Christ may have been instrumental at that 
ignorant age of saving some one or more from this fate 
is not impossible; and this would be sufficient for a 
score of miracles. 

Christ does not say anywhere that he had power 
above his disciples nor that the things he did they 
could not do. He says just the contrary. See John xiv. 
12. He says, " Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that 
believeth in me, the works that I do shall he do also, 
and greater works than these shall he do; because I 



342 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

go to the father" Here is a revelation of truly great 
value. Here Jesus says what thousands can testify to 
to-day ; that he had no power, but others might attain 
to, by believing in the things he did, and by observing 
the law by which they were done. His going to the 
Father has no meaning more than that he expected to 
pass on as do we all, and that they could carry the 
good work on which had been commenced by him. 

As the world advances in knowledge the God question 
is farther removed. At that time Israel's God was still 
wreaking vengeance on the Gentiles with savage satis- 
faction, and is still braided into our present day the- 
ology. 

But we trust he will in time become liberated, or that 
erring mankind will become liberated from him. 

Here is another hard knot for the theologian. The 
answering of prayer. If Jesus had have kept his prom- 
ise in this matter alone, there would have been nothing 
farther needed to have converted the world; and those 
that would not convert, could have been removed by 
prayer. In proof of this, see Matt. xxi. 21-22, " Jesus 
answered and said unto them, Verily, I say unto you. 
If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do 
this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall 
say unto this mountain. Be thou removed, and be 
thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. And all things, 
whatsoever^ ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall 
receive." See also Mark xi. 24, " Therefore I say unto 
you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe 
that ye shall receive them, and ye shall have them." 
Also John xiv. 13-14, " And whatsoever ye shall ask 
in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 343 

glorified in the son. If ye ash any thing in my name I 
will do it." John makes no reference to the fig tree 
that Jesus cursed. 

There is much more concordant scripture, but I think 
this sufficient. There is nothing- contained in the whole 
Scripture, where a declaration by the Father or Son 
proves its untruth as frequently and in as flagrant a 
manner as does these promises accorded to Christ in 
regard to prayer. 

Were we to get all that we desired through prayer, 
we would soon be reduced to a state of dependent nonen- 
tities. We could afford to degenerate to the state of 
babbling childhood; the only thing we would need to 
know would be, how to pray. How inconsistent to 
reason is this teaching, and how apparent the fallacy ! 
Who have not seen, time without number, those who 
seemed to have implicit faith in their Bible eke out an 
existence in abject poverty, perhaps in the almshouse? 

Who have not also seen the believer with a mortal 
disease, robbing him of every enjoyment and every 
hope in this life, while he or she is still young, and the 
attachments to this life are strong and to all appear- 
ance they have much to live for ? Would not such have 
something to pray for, upon which to attach all of 
the faith or hope that a human being could command? 

And yet their prayers and the prayers of their 
friends are of no avail. Death claims his victim. 

How Christ can be believed Divine with such an array 
of evidence to the contrary baffles reason. 

It is strange how the above scripture should have 
found its way into these Gospels ; it is so easily proved 
fallacious, and so absurd in its every detail, that I 



344 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

cannot see who should have wanted it placed there, 
but it has been, and proves how little good sense and 
judgment these Gospel builders had. 

The rejoinder to this by the Theologian, is, but 
the Bible still stands despite all the assaults of its 
adversaries. Mr. Theologian, I am willing it should 
stand. I would not wish it blotted out, nor do I call 
myself an enemy or an adversary ; but I am happy to 
say we are not obliged to believe it, as taught by The- 
ology, which is the best thing there is about it. 

The reader may infer from what has been said, that 
I have no faith or belief in prayer; this is a mistake; 
I believe in consistent prayer. Prayer that you may 
keep yourself in tune with the Infinite; prayer that 
you may be led in the paths of truth and knowledge, 
and right living ; prayer that our labor may be blessed 
if it is honest labor and meant for good ; and for what- 
ever we pray we should work with our hands for that 
end, and if our prayers and labor fail, we can only 
say, Infinite Intelligence knows best. 

Now I wish to speak of a prediction ascribed to 
Christ. If Christ is what is claimed, the only be- 
gotten Son of God, and came to this earth for a 
special purpose, and proves his Divinity by miracles 
and wonders, when he makes a prediction, the predic- 
tion should have been fulfilled, in order to give his 
followers a faith that would withstand all of the as- 
saults that may be made against it, of whatever nature 
the assault might be. 

It is Christ's coming to judgment, or what is called, 
" Christ's second coming " that I now wish to speak 
of. 



PROGRESSIVE AGE, OF REASON 345 

In my younger years, when I was trying to believe 
this Scripture literally, this was among the most per- 
plexing problems that appealed to my mind, and one 
that strained my faith beyond the point of sticking. 

This awful time predicted is recorded in the three 
synoptics or Matthew, Mark, and Luke. John does 
not seem to think this worth speaking of. Mat- 
thew records this in xxiv. It is portrayed as terrible 
to contemplate, and Christ exhorts all interested to 
pray that their flight may not be in the winter nor 
on the Sabbath day. I used to wonder what the Sab- 
bath day could have to do with it; and if He (Christ) 
and God did not wish them to race so unduly on the 
Sabbath day ; why would not they who are responsible 
for this high time, start it on Monday and try and 
have the business closed by Saturday night. Is it 
Moses' law Christ had in mind, and that they would 
all have to be taken outside of the camp and stoned 
to death for profaning the Sabbath? This time pre- 
dicted is horrible in its details. See Matt. xiv. 24: 
" For there shall arise false Christ s, and false prophets, 
and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, 
if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect" 
Again it says if those days should not be shortened 
there should no flesh be saved; but for the elect's sake 
those days shall be shortened. To give us an idea 
of the awfulness of these last days immediately after 
this tribulation, the sun is to be darkened and the moon 
shall not give her light, and the stars are to fall from 
heaven, and the powers of the heavens are to be shaken. 
And God is to send his angels with the great sound 
of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect 



346 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the 
other. Then Christ says, " Verily I say unto you, this 
generation shall not pass till all these things be ful- 
filled: 9 

How wide of the mark is this prediction? It was all 
to be fulfilled before that generation passed, and 
there have more than fifty passed and we are still 
waiting. 

And how exceedingly human this all sounds. What 
idea think you Christ had of the stars when he was 
going to have them fall from heaven? Where were 
they to fall to? is another query. 

Again Christ says, at the time of the coming of 
this "terrible day of the Lord there are false Christs 
to appear, and these shall show great signs and won- 
ders, to the extent that the " elect " are scarcely to 
know the difference, so the question may well be asked, 
Where are the ungodly and the sinner to appear? 

All that this Christ proves himself by is signs and 
wonders, and if other Christs come with the same cre- 
dentials, I should say the plan is to deceive us ; and if 
God himself is laboring to this end, as we are here led 
to understand, how can we well avoid being deceived? 
But as I have before said this is another priestly scare, 
designed to extort from the poor ignorant God fear- 
ing supplicant a little more money. 

Another thing Christ teaches if he teaches anything, 
is the resurrection of the body. 

See John v. 28, 29, which says, "Marvel not at 
this ; for the hour is coming, in the which all that are 
in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth ; 
they that have done good, unto the resurrection of 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 347 

life ; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection 
of damnation." 

Again, Luke xiv. 14. Here Christ speaks of this 
resurrection as though it were a sure thing. Here he 
is instructing his disciples how to conduct a feast and 
who should be invited. He says, "And thou shalt be 
blessed; for they cannot recompense thee; for thou 
shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just." 

I now wish to call your attention to another lesson 
of Christ's on the resurrection. See (Matt. xxii. 23- 
32). The Sadducees are defined as what we now call 
Materialists, and they were desirous of propounding 
some queries on this resurrection question. Where, 
when seven brothers had married the same woman and 
in turn had died and at last she died. They wished 
to know whose wife she would be after the resurrection. 
Christ's reply is what we are after. Here it is " Jesus 
answered and said, Ye do err, not knowing the Scrip- 
tures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection 
they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are 
as the angels of God in heaven. But as touching the 
resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which 
was spoken unto you by God, saying I am the God of 
Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? 
God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. 9 * 
Tis stated, that when the multitude heard this they 
were astonished at his doctrine. Well might they be. 
This reply of Jesus' is so vague and obscure that it is 
not understandable. Whether we are to understand 
from the text that Abraham and Isaac and Jacob are 
alive somewhere at this time, and God was their God; 
or whether God was God to this trio during their 



348 PROGRESSIVE AGE, OF REASON 

natural lives, and was their God no more because they 
were dead, but after the resurrection they would then 
be alive and he would then be their God again. The 
language does not admit of explanation. I have 
spoken somewhat upon this subject of the resurrection 
of the body. It is a waning faith, and as reason devel- 
opes, it will dwindle to a rudiment, like the vermiform 
appendix, but I hope will not be the source of trouble, 
as has been this little entrail. 

Reason denounces the resurrection as intolerable to 
intelligence. It is the most irrational, unnatural thing 
that Ignorance and Superstition could devise as a re- 
ligion, is this unnatural doctrine of the resurrection of 
the mortal body. So we will let this subject rest. 

CHAPTER XXVIII 

The old subject of faith is one that was a query 
to my mind from early childhood. When a boy I 
used to muse upon what a powerful commodity was the 
thing called faith. I had a good idea what a mustard 
seed was like, and to think that a faith the size of this 
little seed could remove mountains, by saying the word, 
made faith look to me most valuable ; because the land 
of my nativity was and still is thickly set with moun- 
tains, which I would gladly have seen replaced with 
good bottom land. 

In Matthew, Mark and Luke, Christ speaks of this 
thing, " faith " to his disciples, rather reproachfully, 
as if they should have a well developed faith, from what 
they have already seen. 

In the case of Matt. xvii. 20, the several verses pre- 
ceding, shows that there was a case of an obstinate 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 649 

devil, which the disciples were unable to lay, with all 
the faith and knowledge they had in devil dealing; 
so the case had to be carried to Christ. He after de- 
nouncing his disciples in pretty strong terms for their 
lack of faith, rebukes this devil, and the devil makes his 
exodus, where God only knows. 

His disciples want an explanation why they could 
not make the disconnection (SO), "And Jesus said unto 
them. Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto 
you, If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye 
shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to 
yonder place; and nothing shall be impossible unto 
you." 

Then right in close connection, the next verse (21), 
he says: " Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by 
prayer and fasting. After pronouncing this panegy- 
ric upon faith, he then immediately declares prayer 
and fasting the more potent. In Matt. xxi. 21, Christ 
again reiterates the power of faith, when his disciples 
marveled, at the time that he cursed the fig-tree, how 
soon the fig-tree withered away. 

He verifies this same thing in regard to removing 
mountains again in Mark xi. 23. Again in Luke xvii. 
6. He impresses them again, but this time instead of 
a mountain it is a sycamore tree. 

But we are given to understand that this minute 
quantity of faith is equal to the task, whether a moun- 
tain is to be removed or a sycamore tree. Here are 
his words : u And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a 
grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this syca- 
more tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou 
planted in the sea; and it should obey you." 

These are all declarations. It would seem as though 



350 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

Christ should have given an ocular demonstration or 
two, since it was so very easy and required so very 
little quantity of faith. 

If he had have removed a mountain or two through 
faith alone, or sent a few sycamore trees floating 
through the air on a still day by the power of faith, 
this would have been a much more impressive lesson for 
the unbeliever. But what throws the gloom of doubt 
over the whole thing is that Christ's power through 
faith does not seem stable ; for among his own kin and 
in his own country, see Mark vi. 5, which says : " And 
he could there do no mighty work save that he laid 
hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them." 

In the book of John this subject of faith is not 
brought to the foreground. Why should John not 
have spoken of a matter of so great importance? The 
book of John is a much later production, and the Papal 
Church was pretty well defined, and her creed fairly 
formulated; and she needed this Gospel to bolster it 
up, and the faith part was not so much needed. The 
Gospel of John is intended more particularly for church 
extension; that is, to extend the redeeming blood of 
Christ to the Gentiles, thereby making it universal to 
the world. 

Christ is very partial to the Jews in the Synoptics, 
while in John he is constantly upbraiding them for 
their unbelief. This faith question, as recorded, with 
all of its connections, and Christ's inability to make 
use of this power when in his own country, when 
weighed in the balances of Reason, drops to the level 
of mvth and fable. 

Among all the creeds called Christian there is not a 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 351 

devotee among them that can move by faith alone a 
mote floating in a sunbeam. 

I will now invite your attention to a portion of 
John vi. You should read this chapter, because it is 
unique; it teaches a doctrine so abhorrent in its na- 
ture that 'tis stated (see verse 6), "From that time 
many of his disciples went bach and walked with him 
no more" 

Were they justified in doing so? Let us make a quo- 
tation or two and see. Verses 51-56 : " / am the living 
bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat 
of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that 
I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of 
the world. The Jews therefore strove amongst thenv- 
selves, saying, How shall this man give us his flesh to 
eat? Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say 
unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, 
and drink his blood, ye have no life in you, 

" Whoso eatheth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, 
hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last 
day. 

" For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink 
indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my 
blood, dwelleth in me and I in him." 

What are we to make of this ? What could be more 
disgusting or offensive to human nature than this lan- 
guage accorded to Christ? What could be said more 
revolting? Just pure cannibalism! 

Think you Jesus ever said this? If he had been so 
solicitous of having his flesh eaten and his blood drank, 
why would not this thing have been so stated in the 
preceding Gospels, which are mute upon this matter? 



352 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

While in John, Christ makes eating his flesh and 
drinking his blood imperative to salvation. 

While he says repeatedly in the preceding Gospels 
that belief and baptism are what saves. 

What more irrational and repulsive could be offered 
to what are called the heathen, and what would they 
have as religion more diabolical, which this would re- 
place? To try to convert the cannibal with such teach- 
ing as this would seem akin to trying to fight the 
orthodox Devil with fire. 

This is so repugnant that 'tis said (verse 66), 
" From that time many of his disciples went back, and 
walked no more with him." 

I should say it would be extremely hazardous to use 
the above Scriptural quotations to convert the canni- 
bal of the Dark Continent, especially if the missionary 
were in fair flesh. 

What reason can be given for placing stuff like this 
in this Scripture is truly an enigma. 

Founded upon this barbarous record is what is called 
the " Sacrament," administered by the clergy of to- 
day, where a crumb of bread simulates Christ's body 
and a sip of fruit juice his blood. 

There is one thing to me very consoling about this 
above quotation, and the same applies to the whole of 
the old, old orthodox story. Christ never taught any 
such outlandish thing as this, but somebody has wrote 
this and it has been placed here in this Scripture. I 
do not see who would wish to father such stuff as this ; 
of all the contemptible things done in the name of re- 
ligion is to saddle such slander as this upon the inno- 
cent dead! But priestcraft has done this thing, and 



PROGRESSIVE AGE, OF REASON 353 

would make their falsehoods binding upon the human 
race as long as time endures, were it not that Truth 
and Reason are to take their proper place in the hearts 
and minds of men in God's good time, and priestly 
error is to become a thing of the past. 

This same John gave us this most wonderful revela- 
tion from the Isle of Patmos, called the Apocalypse. 

Suppose one should write such an effusion at this 
time ; what would be thought of it ? The author would 
be accounted insane. What other conclusion could be 
arrived at? — unless it were done for a joke. Whether 
a man by the name of John, or whoever it was that 
wrote this matter in the canon ascribed to him, it is 
evident to my mind that his productions are the result 
of a diseased imagination. 

Note what he says at the conclusion of his first 
effort — his Gospel — John xxi. 25: 

" And there are also many other things which Jesus 
did, the whole if they should be written every one, I 
suppose that even the world itself could not contain 
the books' that should be written." 

How can one believe an unreasonable, contradictory 
story, and then have the narrator conclude by proving 
himself a man of such limited, childlike judgment? 
Just think of it: "If all the things that Christ did 
were recorded, the world could not contain the books." 

The things that are recorded that he both did and 
said, his sermon on the Mount and all, would not re- 
quire more than from twenty minutes to half an hour 
to relate; so just think of what the world has lost if 
this be true! 

In John xvi. 12, 'tis recorded that Christ says, "/ 



354 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear 
them now. 9 * What could these things have been? Were 
they things still more unreasonable than the things we 
now have accorded to him ? Brethren, I think we have 
a-plenty now, such as it is. 

We now come to the closing scene — Christ's cruci- 
fixion. 

This is recorded in all of these Gospels. That Christ 
was crucified — this we have no reason to doubt. 

There have been many martyrs, recorded on the 
pages of history, to their belief or unbelief, and that 
this man Christ was one, this much we can believe. 
But the miraculous attached to this martyr, his resur- 
rection and his ascension, the stories are so divergent 
and the whole thing so unreasonable; and the whole 
plan of salvation founded upon the Old Scriptures and 
these pretended teachings is so devoid of rationality, 
that we can but doubt at best, and doubt, according 
to the plan, excludes us from Abraham's bosom, which 
is the much sought for spot, according to Luke (xvi. 
19-31). 

Upon this subject of the crucifixion, resurrection, 
and ascension, I will quote from Thomas Paine. 

There has a period of one hundred and fourteen 
years elapsed since he wrote his " Age of Reason,'" 
and this period has wrought many changes in the de- 
partments of human thought and human activities ; 
and while his " Age of Reason " proves him a man of 
great ability, and that he had a courage equal to his 
convictions, but I would not pretend to say that what 
he writes is in all cases infallible. He wrote as he 
understood, but time brings revelations; and while in 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 355 

the main I think this volume of his correct, there are 
some things in it, and also in this quotation, that he 
did not understand, nor does it seem understood by 
the orthodox churches of to-day. After making this 
quotation I will note a few exceptions. 

Page 142': "The first question, however, upon the 
books of the New Testament, as upon those of the 
Old, is, Are they genuine? Were they written by the 
persons to whom they are ascribed? For it is upon 
this ground only that the strange things related therein 
have been credited. Upon this point there is no direct 
proof for or against; and all that this state of a case 
proves is doubtfulness : and doubtfulness is the apposite 
of belief. The state, therefore, that the books are in 
proves against themselves as far as this kind of proof 
can go. 

" But exclusive of this presumption is that the books 
called the Evangelists, and ascribed to Matthew, Mark, 
Luke, and John, were not written by Matthew, Mark, 
Luke, and John; and that they are impositions. The 
disordered state of the history in these four books, the 
silence of one book upon matters related in the others, 
and the disagreement that is to be found among them, 
implies that they are the production of some uncon- 
nected individuals, many years after the things they 
pretend to relate, each of whom made his own legend; 
and not the writings of men living intimately together, 
as the men called apostles are supposed to have done; 
in fine, that they have been manufactured, as the books 
of the Old Testament have been, by other persons than 
those whose names they bear. 

" The story of the angel announcing what the church 



356 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

calls the immaculate conception is not so much as men- 
tioned in the books ascribed to Mark and John ; and is 
differently related in Matthew and Luke. 

" The former says the angel appeared to Joseph ; 
and the latter says it was to Mary ; but either Joseph 
or Mary was the worst evidence that could have been 
thought of; for it was others that should have testi- 
fied for them and not they for themselves. Were any 
girl that is now with child to say, and even to swear it, 
that she was gotten with child by a ghost, and that 
an angel told her so, would she be believed? Certainly 
she would not. Why then are we to believe the same 
thing of another girl whom we never saw, told by no- 
body knows who, nor when, nor where? How strange 
and inconsistent is it that the same circumstance that 
would weaken the belief even of a probable story, should 
be given as a motive for believing this one, that has 
upon the face of it every token of absolute impossi- 
bility and imposture! 

"The story of Herod destroying all the children 
under two years old belongs altogether to the book of 
Matthew ; not one of the rest mentions anything about 
it. Had such a circumstance been true, the univer- 
sality of it must have made it known to all of the 
writers ; and the thing would have been too striking to 
have been omitted by any. This writer tells us that 
Jesus escaped this slaughter because Joseph and Mary 
were warned by an angel to flee with him into Egypt ; 
but he forgot to make provision for John, who was 
then under two years of age. John, however, who 
stayed behind, fared as well as Jesus, who fled; and, 
therefore, the story circumstantially belies itself. 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 357 

" Not any two of these writers agree in reciting 
exactly the same words the written inscription, short 
as it is, which they tell us was put over Christ when 
he was crucified, and besides this, Mark says he was 
crucified at the third hour (nine in the morning) and 
John says it was the sixth hour (twelve at noon). 

" The inscription is thus stated in those books : 

"Matthew — This is Jesus the King of the Jews. 

" Mark— The King of the Jews. 

" Luke — This is the King of the Jews. 

" John — Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews. 

"We may infer from these circumstances, trivial 
as they are, that those writers, whoever they were, and 
in whatever time they lived, were not present at the 
scene. 

"The only one of the men called apostles who ap- 
pears to have been near the spot was Peter, and when 
he was accused of being one of Jesus' followers, it is 
said (Matt. xxvi. 74). * Then began he (Peter) to curse 
and to swear, saying, I know not the man! ' Yet we 
are now called to believe the same Peter, convicted, by 
their own account, of perjury. For what reason, or 
on what authority, should we do this? 

" The accounts that are given of the circumstances 
that they tell us attended the crucifixion are differently 
related in those four books. 

" The book ascribed to Matthew says there was 
darkness over all the land from the sixth hour until the 
ninth hour; that the veil of the temple was rent in 
twain from the top to the bottom; that there was an 
earthquake; that the rocks rent; that the graves 
opened; that the bodies of many of the saints that 



358 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

slept arose and came out of their graves after the res- 
urrection, and went into the holy city and appeared 
unto many. Such is the account which this dashing 
writer of the book of Matthew gives, but in which he 
is not supported by the writers of the other books. 

" The writer of the book ascribed to Mark in detail- 
ing the circumstances of the crucifixion, makes no men- 
tion of any earthquake, nor of the rocks rending, nor 
of the graves opening, nor the dead men walking out. 
The writer of the book of Luke is silent upon the same 
points. And as to the writer of the book of John, 
though he details all the circumstances of the crucifix- 
ion down to the burial of Christ, he says nothing about 
either the darkness, the veil of the temple, the earth- 
quake, the rocks, the graves, nor the dead men. 

" Now, if it had been true that those things hap- 
pened, and if the writers of these books had lived at 
the time they did happen, and had been the persons 
they are said to be, namely, the four men called apos- 
tles, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, it was not pos- 
sible for them, as true historians, even without the aid 
of inspiration, not to have recorded them. The things, 
supposing them to have been facts, were of too much 
notoriety not to have been known, and of too much 
importance not to have been told. All these supposed 
apostles must have been witnesses of the earthquake, 
if there had been any ; for it was not possible for them 
to have been absent from it ; the opening of the graves 
and the resurrection of the dead men, and their walk- 
ing about the city, is of still greater importance than 
the earthquake. An earthquake is always possible, and 
natural, and proves nothing; but this opening of the 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 359 

graves is supernatural, and directly in point to their 
doctrine, their cause, and their apostleship. Had it 
been true, it would have filled up whole chapters of 
those books, and been the chosen theme and general 
chorus of all the writers ; but instead of this, little and 
trivial things and mere prattling conversation of * He 
said this ' and ' She said that ' are often tediously de- 
tailed, while this most important of all, had it been 
true, is passed off in a slovenly manner by a single 
dash of the pen, and that by one writer only, and not 
so much as hinted at by the rest. 

" Strange indeed that an army of saints should re- 
turn to life, and nobody know who they were, nor who 
it was that saw them, and that not a word more 
should be said upon the subject, nor these saints have 
anything to tell us ! Had it been the prophets who 
(as we are told) had formerly prophesied of these 
things, they must have had a great deal to say. They 
could have told us everything, and we should have had 
posthumous prophecies, with notes and commentaries 
upon the first, a little better at least than we have now. 
Had it been Moses and Aaron, and Joshua, and Sam- 
uel, and David, not an unconverted Jew had remained 
in all Jerusalem. Had it been John the Baptist, and 
the saints of the times then present, everybody would 
have known them, and they would have outpreached 
and outfamed all the other apostles. But, instead of 
this, these saints are made to pop up, like Jonah's 
gourd in the night, for no purpose at all but to wither 
in the morning. Thus much for this part of the story. 

"The tale of the resurrection follows that of the 
crucifixion ; and in this, as well as in that, the writers, 



360 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

whoever they were, disagree so much as to make it 
evident that none of them were there. 

" The book of Matthew states that when Christ was 
put in the sepulchre, the Jews applied to Pilate for a 
watch or a guard to be placed over the sepulchre, to 
prevent the body being stolen by the disciples; and 
that in consequence of this request, the sepulchre was 
made sure, sealing the stone that covered the mouth, 
and setting a watch. But the other books say nothing 
about this application, nor about the sealing, nor the 
guard, nor the watch ; and, according to their accounts, 
there were none. Matthew, however, follows up this 
part of the story of the guard or the watch with a 
second part, that I shall notice in the conclusion, as it 
serves to detect the fallacy of those books. 

" The book of Matthew continues its account, and 
says (xxviii. 1) that at the end of the Sabbath, as it 
began to dawn towards the first day of the week, came 
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sep- 
ulchre. 

" Mark says it was sun-rising, and John says it was 
dark. Luke says it was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, 
and Mary the mother of James, and other women that 
came to the sepulchre; and John states that Mary 
Magdalene came alone.. So well do they agree about 
their first evidence ! They all, however, appear to have 
known most about Mary Magdalene ; she was a woman 
of large acquaintance, and it was not an ill conjecture 
that she might be upon the stroll. 

" The book of Matthew goes on to say (verse 2) : 
* And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the 
angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 861 

and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon 
it.' But the other books say nothing about any earth- 
quake, nor about the angel rolling back the stone and 
sitting upon it ; and, according to their accounts, there 
was no angel sitting there. Mark says the angel was 
within the sepulchre, sitting on the right side. Luke 
says there were two, and they were both standing up ; 
and John says they were both sitting down, one at the 
head and the other at the feet. 



CHAPTER XXIX 

" Matthew says that the angel that was sitting upon 
the stone on the outside of the sepulchre told the two 
Marys that Christ was risen, and that the women went 
away quickly. Mark says that the women, upon see- 
ing the stone rolled away, and wondering at it, went 
into the sepulchre, and that it was the angel that was 
sitting within on the right side that told them so. 
Luke says it was the two angels that were standing 
up; and John says it was Jesus Christ himself that 
told it to Mary Magdalene; and that she did not go 
into the sepulchre, but only stooped down and looked 
in. 

"Now, if the writers of these four books had gone 
into a court of justice to prove an alibi (for it is of 
the nature of an alibi that is here attempted to be 
proved, namely, the absence of a dead body by super- 
natural means), and had they given their evidence in 
the same contradictory manner as it is here given, 
they would have been in danger of having their ears 
cropped for perjury and would have justly deserved 



363 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

it. Yet this is the evidence, and these are the books, 
that have been imposed upon the world as being given 
by divine inspiration, and as the unchangeable word 
of God. 

" The writer of the book of Matthew, after giving 
this account, relates a story that is not to be found 
in any other of the books, and which is the same I 
have just before alluded to. 

" * Now,' says he (that is after the conversation the 
women had with the angel sitting upon the stone), 
* behold, some of the watch (meaning the watch that 
he had said had been placed over the sepulchre) came 
into the city, and showed unto the chief priests all the 
things that were done; and when they were assembled 
with the elders and had taken counsel, they gave large 
money unto the soldiers, saying, Say ye, that his dis- 
ciples came by night, and stole him- away while we 
slept; and if this come to the governor's ears, we will 
persuade him and secure you. So they took the money, 
and did as they were taught ; and this saying (that his 
disciples stole him away) is commonly reported among 
the Jews until this day.' The expression, until this 
day, is an evidence that the book ascribed to Matthew 
was not written by Matthew, and that it has been 
manufactured long after the times and things of which 
it pretends to treat ; for the expression implies a great 
length of intervening time. It would be inconsistent 
in us to speak in this manner of anything happening 
in our own time. To give*, therefore, intelligible mean- 
ing to the expression, we must suppose a lapse of some 
generations at least, for this manner of speaking car- 
ries the mind back to ancient time. 

"The absurdity also of the story is worth noticing; 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 363 

for it shows the writer of the book of Matthew to have 
been an exceedingly weak and foolish man. He tells 
a story that contradicts itself in point of possibility; 
for though the guard, if there were any, might be made 
to say that the body was taken away while they were 
asleep, and to give that as a reason for their not 
having prevented it, that same sleep must also have 
prevented their knowing how and by whom it was done ; 
and yet they are made to say it was the disciples who 
did it. Were a man to tender his evidence of something 
he should say was done, and of the manner of doing 
it, and of the person who did it, while he was asleep 
and could know nothing of the matter, such evidence 
could not be received; it will do well enough for Tes- 
tament evidence, but not for anything where truth is 
concerned. 

"I now come to that part of the evidence in those 
books that respects the pretended appearance of Christ 
after his pretended resurrection. 

"The writer of the book of Matthew relates that 
the angel that was sitting on the stone at the mouth 
of the sepulchre said to the two Marys (xxviii. 7)> 
' Behold, he (Christ) goeth before you into Galilee; 
there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you. 9 And the 
same writer at the next two verses (9, 10) makes Christ 
himself to speak to the same purpose to these women 
immediately after the angel had told it to them, and 
that they ran quickly to tell it to the disciples; and, 
at the sixteenth verse, it is said, * Then the eleven dis- 
ciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where 
Jesus had appointed them; and when they saw him 9 
they Worshiped him* 

" But the writer of the book of John tells us a story 



364f PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

very different from this; for he says (xx. 19), * Then 
the same day at evening, being the first day of the 
week (that is, the same day that Christ is said to have 
risen), when the doors were shut, where the disciples 
were assembled, for fear of the Jews, came Jesus, and 
stood in the midst. 9 

"According to Matthew, the eleven were marching 
to Galilee to meet Jesus in a mountain, by his own ap- 
pointment, at the very time when, according to John, 
they were assembled in another, place, and that not 
by appointment, but in secret, for fear of the Jews. 

" The writer of the book of Luke (xxiv. 13, 33, 36) 
contradicts that of Matthew more pointedly than John 
does ; for he says expressly that the meeting was in 
Jerusalem, the evening of the same day that he 
(Christ) rose, and that the eleven were there, 

"Now, it is not possible, unless we admit these sup- 
posed disciples the right of willful lying, that the 
writer of these books could be any of the eleven per- 
sons called disciples ; for if, according to Matthew, the 
eleven went into Galilee to meet Jesus in a mountain 
by his own appointment, on the same day that he is 
said to have risen, Luke and John must have been two 
of that eleven ; yet the writer of Luke says expressly, 
and John implies as much, that the meeting was that 
same day, in a house in Jerusalem ; and, on the other 
hand, if, according to Luke and John, the eleven were 
assembled in a house in Jerusalem, Matthew must have 
been one of that eleven; yet Matthew says the meet- 
ing was in a mountain in Galilee, and consequently the 
evidence given in those books destroys each other. 

" The writer of the book of Mark says nothing about 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 365 

any meeting in Galilee; but he says (xvi. 12) that 
Christ, after his resurrection, appeared in another 
form to two of them, as they walked into the country, 
and that these two told it to the residue, who would 
not believe them. Luke also tells a story, in which he 
keeps Christ employed the whole of the day of this 
pretended resurrection until the evening, and which to- 
tally invalidates the account of going to the mountain 
in Galilee. He says that two of them, without saying 
which two, went that same day to a village called Em- 
maus, threescore furlongs (seven miles and a half) from 
Jerusalem, and that Christ, in disguise, went with them, 
and stayed with them unto the evening, and supped 
with them, and then vanished out of their sight, and 
reappeared that same evening at the meeting of the 
eleven in Jerusalem. 

" This is the contradictory manner in which the evi- 
dence of this pretended reappearance of Christ is 
stated; the only point in which the writers agree is 
the skulking privacy of that reappearance ; for whether 
it was in the recess of a mountain in Galilee, or in a 
shut-up house in Jerusalem, it was still skulking. To 
what cause then are we to assign this skulking? On 
the one hand, it is directly repugnant to the supposed 
or pretended end — that of convincing the world that 
Christ was risen ; and, on the other hand, to have as- 
serted publicity of it would have exposed the writers 
of those books to public detection, and, therefore, they 
have been under the necessity of making it a private 
affair." 

I have quoted at a goodly length from Thomas 



366 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

Paine for several reasons; one is, this quotation is 
very edifying 1 , and in regard to circumstance, time and 
place, you will find his deductions are correct and to 
the point. While Mr. Paine labors to prove that Mat- 
thew, Mark, Luke, and John were not as represented, 
namely, four of his apostles who were close attendants 
during this period of Christ's miracles and ministry; 
while he labors in this direction, my work has been 
laid out in another: that Christ's teachings do not be- 
speak or lead Reason to believe that Christ is of di- 
vine origin, more than are the rest of erring mankind. 

Therefore, Mr. Paine's deductions, coupled with 
those of mine, it would seem, must impress the truth- 
seeker that there is something badly out of gear with 
this orthodox machinery. 

The fact is, dear reader, in this maelstrom of apo- 
cryphal scripture, the clashing of the creeds, the con- 
troversies and crusades between Christian and infidel, 
the fight between what looked like rational deductions 
and irrational dogma, in Thomas Paine's time, had 
submerged the truth to that extent that it was not 
recognizable throughout what was called the civilized 
world. 

The clouds of the " Dark Ages " were still impene- 
trable to human vision in Thomas Paine's day, and are 
lowering still, but there are rifts in these clouds now 
that permit the sunlight of Truth to appear to those 
who seek. 

J wish to call your attention to the closing remarks 
of this quotation of Mr. Paine's — where he speaks of 
the skulking manner in which Christ appeared after 
his resurrection, and more particularly where he ap- 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 367 

peared to the eleven in the closed room in Jerusalem. 
Whether this happened just as recorded or not is not 
pertinent to the case; but to those who understand, it 
is evident here is a case that parallels a modern case of 
spirit materialization, and this, I have no reason to 
doubt, occurred. 

Since this Christ account has reached us in the man- 
ner in which it has, with the Papal Church as sponsor 
for all that Christ said or did, and as their ambition 
was to build up a hierarchy for priestly power and 
revenue, the wonder is that there is a trace of spirit- 
ual truth preserved that is discernible. 

The data is but little ; but when this is coupled with 
certain things embodied in the teachings of Paul, it is 
evident that Spiritualism underlies the whole thing; 
and this, coupled with modern revelation, proves that 
Spiritualism is dimly outlined throughout these ancient 
writings, and is to stand out in bold relief as the hu- 
man soul develops. 

Now let us see what St. Paul says in regard to spir- 
itual gifts : 1 Cor. xii., beginning with the chapter — 
" Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not 
have you ignorant. Ye know that ye were Gentiles, 
carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were 
led. Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man 
speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: 
and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but 
by the Holy Ghost" Who this Holy Ghost is is not 
clear; but that he is an unfleshed entity that has been 
an inhabitant of this earth at some time there is no 
doubt. "Now there are diversities of gifts, but the 
same Spirit. And there are differences of administra- 



368 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

tions, but the same Lord. (Lord here is synonymous 
with spirit.) And there are diversities of operations, 
but it is the same God (spirit) which worketh all in all. 
But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every 
man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit 
the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge. 
(What is meant here is trance speaking or writing.) 
To another faith by the same Spirit. (The moving of 
ponderable bodies; levitation.) To another the gifts 
of healing by the same Spirit. To another the work- 
ing of miracles (there are several phases, we assume, 
are here included, like the passing of matter through 
matter, etc.) ; to another prophecy; to another the dis- 
cerning of spirits (clairvoyance) ; to another divers 
kinds of tongues (speaking in different languages) ; to 
another the interpretation of tongues (this explains 
itself). But all these worketh that one and the self- 
same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he (the 
spirit) will. 

I will now invite your attention to another spirit 
manifestation, contained in £ Cor. xii. 1-5 : " It is not 
expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to 
visions and revelations of the Lord (spirit). J knew a 
man in Christ above fourteen years ago, {whether in 
the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I 
cannot tell: God knoweth;) such a one caught up to 
the third heaven. And I knew such a man, (whether 
in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God 
knoweth;) How he was caught up into paradise, and 
heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a 
man to utter" (margin not possible). Here is a case 
of what is called externalization. This is a phase of 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 369 

spirit manifestation that thousands can testify ito, 
which I will speak of again later. 

The conversion of Paul recorded in Acts ix. is an- 
other case in point of spirit manifestation which is per- 
fectly palpable to the initiated. 

The rational conclusion is that Christ had a resur- 
rection and an ascension, just as does every individual 
who leaves the mortal form, and takes his or her place 
in the realm of spirit, where their conduct in earth-life 
properly places them. 

And that Christ had a knowledge of Spiritualism, 
and the law relating to spirit return and spirit com- 
munion; and that he taught this doctrine, and mani- 
fested himself to his friends after his crucifixion or 
death, there is no doubt. 

Before concluding my exegesis of the Bible, I feel 
it would be incomplete were I not to make a quotation 
from our late friend, Moses Hull, on "Our Bible; 
Who Wrote It," page 380: 

"The Westminster Confession of Faith, and Dean 
Burgan, have both been quoted to show that it has 
been and still is with some Christians the belief that 
the Bible is God's full and only revelation — that it is 
plenarily inspired, and that no other word will ever 
be heard from God until the world is summoned to 
judgment. It is also affirmed that by God's especial 
care ( ( singular care and providence * is the language 
of the Confession of Faith) this book has been kept 
pure in all ages. To this might be added statements 
to the same effect from Dr. Lardner, Bishop Home, 
Watson, Paley, Rev. David Nelson, and other eigh- 
teenth and nineteenth century theologians. 



370 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

" Paley, Mcllvane and Patterson all make argu- 
ments which, when reduced to logical forms, must 
amount to about this: Demand and supply are co- 
extensive and co-eternal. One never can exist with- 
out the other. If water had never existed there could 
never have been thirst, or a demand for water. Food 
is adapted to the stomach, and the stomach to the 
work of digesting food. Indeed, there is no other use 
for food except to put into the stomach, and the 
stomach has no other function than to digest 
food. 

"Light would be of little use to us if we had no 
eyes, and eyes would be useless without light. So of 
the ear, it is adapted to catch sound, and sound is 
absolutely useless were there no ear. After repeating 
this argument in various forms of phraseology for many 
pages, the authors usually bring it to a climax with 
the assertion that when God was making appetites for 
men, he placed within them an appetite — a hunger or 
thirst for revelation — a desire to hear from God. In- 
asmuch as this desire for a revelation is in man, wher- 
ever found, and inasmuch as God has given no man 
desires or appetites for which he has not provided a 
means of gratification, he must have provided man 
with a revelation from himself. 

"The argument when reduced to something like a 
syllogistic formula is about as follows: 

" 1. Man's maker has provided the means for the 
gratification of his every appetite. 

" 2. Man has an appetite for a revelation from God ; 

" S. Therefore, man's maker has provided for him a 
revelation. 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 371 

" This is Logic. I think it is good logic ; but logic 
which proves too much proves nothing, and as this 
proves too much it is fatal to the one who uses it to 
prove the doctrine set forth in the Westminster Con- 
fession of Faith, that the Bible is God's only revela- 
tion. 

" The minor proposition says, man has an appetite 
for a revelation from God ; that would make a founda- 
tion for another syllogism, which should be stated as 
follows : 

"1. Man has an appetite for revelations from the 
supermundane world ; 

"% The Buddhists and the Brahmins are men; 

" 3. Therefore, the Buddhists and the Brahmins 
have an appetite for revelations from the supermun- 
dane world. 

" Now let the major proposition become the founda- 
tion for another syllogistic argument as follows: 

" 1. God has provided for the gratification of every 
appetite of Brahmins, Buddhists, and Christians; 

" 9>. Brahmins, Buddhists, and Christians have ap- 
petites alike for a revelation from God ; 

" 3. Therefore, God has prepared a revelation for 
Brahmins, Buddhists, and Christians. 

" This staple Christian argument, under review, as- 
serts that the appetite for a revelation from God proves 
the existence of such revelation ; if this is true, will not 
a similar appetite prove the same for those who never 
heard of the Bible, or of Christianity? If it does not, 
then there is a fallacy somewhere in the learned logic 
of these Christian gentlemen. How would it do to 
say, God has provided for humanity's every appetite? 



Sn PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

"But he has provided no revelation for the South 
Sea Islanders; 

" Therefore, the South Sea Islanders are not human 
beings. 

"These reductio ad absurdum arguments might be 
followed indefinitely, but I do not propose to pursue 
them farther. 

"Does it not seem strange that if God is as 
these writers suppose, under obligation to give man 
a revelation, he did not see his duty before some 
evil power got around with so many false revela- 
tions ? 

"How strange that his Satanic Majesty was per- 
mitted to overload the most enlightened people of the 
world with the counterfeit so long before the genuine 
existed. Not only were there counterfeit Bibles, but 
think of the Avatars or Saviors who counterfeited our 
Savior hundreds of years before he was born! Such 
mysteries as these are among the greatest of the mys- 
teries of Godliness." 

I was much interested not long since in having an 
opportunity to examine and peruse a copy of "The 
Apocryphal New Testament." I did not know until 
then that there was such a volume extant. 

I premise there are many ignorant of this volume. 
So I will place here a few words in explanation. This 
volume contains, in my judgment, about as much mat- 
ter as does the canonical one, omitting the Gospels. 
This Apocryphal New Testament is the result of the 
matter rejected by the Nicene Council and throws much 
light upon the New Testament Scripture. I will quote 
briefly from the preface of this volume, and then give 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 373 

you a sample from the Testament matter which re- 
mained under the table. 

This from the Preface: 

"The Editor has been charged with expressing too 
little veneration for the councils of the church" (he 
says). "He feels none. It is true that respecting the 
three hundred Bishops assembled at the Council of 
Nice, the Emperor Constantine says, That what was 
approved by these Bishops could be nothing less than 
the determinations of God himself; since the Holy 
Spirit residing in such great and worthy souls unfolded 
to them the Divine will. Yet Sabius, the Bishop of 
Heracleaj affirms, that, excepting Constantine himself, 
and Eusebius Pamphilus, they were a set of illiterate, 
simple creatures that understood nothing ; and Pappus 
seems to have estimated them very low, for in his Synod- 
icon to the Council, he tells us, that having promis- 
cuously put all the books that were referred to the 
council for determination, under the communion table 
in the church, they besought the Lord that the inspired 
writings might get upon the table while the spurious 
ones remained underneath, and it happened accord- 
ingly. . . . 

" After eighteen centuries of bloodshed and cruelties 
perpetrated in the name of Christianity, it is gradu- 
ally emerging from the mystifying subtleties of fath- 
ers, councils and hierarchies, and the encumbering 
edicts of soldier kings and papal decretals." 

" Charmed by the loveliness of its primitive simplic- 
ity, every sincere human heart will become a temple for 
its habitation, and every man become a priest unto 
himself. Thus and thus only, will be established the 



374* PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

religion of Him who, having the same interest with 
ourselves in the welfare of mankind, left us, for the 
rule of our happiness, the sum and substances of his 
code of peace and good will — ' Whatsoever ye would 
that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto 
them.' 

"By some persons of the multitude commonly 
known by the name of Christians, and who profess to 
suppose they do God's will by calling themselves so, 
the Editor has been attacked with a malignity and 
fury that would have graced the age of Mary and 
Elisabeth, when Catholics put to death Protestants 
and Protestants put to death Catholics, for the sake 
of Him who commanded mankind to love one another." 



CHAPTER! XXX 

In the New Testament canon there is a painful si- 
lence in regard to Christ's infancy and childhood. This 
gap would have been well rounded had not this, called 
the Apocryphal Scripture, have been rejected by the 
Nicene Council. 

It was once a grave question with me why so illus- 
trious a character and one of whom so much is ex- 
pected and so much is promised, should be turned 
over to the world with so few words. 

This is a good Bible story, this of this promiscuous 
matter being placed under the communion table, and 
the genuine books being selected and placed on top of 
the table by the power of prayer and without the aid 
of human hands. I think here would have been a prob- 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 375 

lem beyond the power of intelligence either incarnate 
or excarnate, to have selected the genuine from the 
spurious, when the whole thing is fraud, as it unmis- 
takably proves itself to be. 

If this scripture had been placed under the com- 
munion table and this council had prayed and waited 
for such an expurgation to have taken place as de- 
scribed, it would have remained under the table — to 
use an oft-repeated Bible phrase — until this day, as it 
should: because there would have been nothing under 
the conditions for a resurrection. 

You may be led to think I am badly contradicting 
myself in quoting St. Paul and then talking in this 
manner. Not so. I occupy the same ground as at 
the outset. Whether Paul ever had a bona f&e exist- 
ence or not, no mortal on earth can tell. Reaching 
back through the vista of two thousand years, this 
account, reaching us as it does, it is impossible to 
judge. 

I take this scripture which I quote just as the 
searcher after gems would sift a bed of gravel. "I 
accept the Truth wherever found, on Christian or on 
heathen ground." And what of Paul I have quoted 
is of great value to the truth-seeker, because of the 
time, place and circumstances under which it comes to 
us. Paul's writings remind one of a lunatic who at 
rare intervals has lucid moments, and at such times 
must needs be watched with studious care, for he so 
soon relapses into incoherent incongruity, which makes 
up the bulk of his writings. There is a goodly share 
of his writings, or what is accorded to him, in this re- 
jected scripture. 



376 PROGRESSIVE AGS OF REASON 

At a time when there was a demand for scripture 
to supply the needs of the priests, there were so many 
religious zealots who thought they were doing God's 
will by lying for Christ's sake, that the " Holy See " 
was surfeited with sacred writings. It was like " the 
old woman who lived in her shoe" — they had so much 
scripture they didn't know what to do: this has neces- 
sitated councils to eliminate this superabundance of 
scripture. It would have been wise to have burned 
this supernatent matter, but these councils have not 
always acted wisely, as is painfully apparent. 

What these councils have accepted is our infallible, 
unchangeable word of God, which comes down to us 
as the result of their caprice, or that which may best 
serve their purpose. 

Here is a chapter from this Apocryphal New Testa- 
ment. Read it and reflect. This from the book called 
"Infancy," chapter vii. (I will omit the headings) : 

" They came afterwards to another city, and had a 
mind to lodge there. Accordingly they went to a man's 
house, who was newly married, but by the influence of 
sorcerers could not enjoy his wife: But they, lodging 
at his house that night, the man was freed from his 
disorder: And when they were preparing early in 
the morning to go forward on their journey, the new 
married person hindered them, and provided a noble 
entertainment for them. But going forward on the 
morrow, they came to another city, and saw three 
women going from a certain grave with great weeping. 
When St. Mary saw them, she spake to the girl who 
was their companion, saying, Go and inquire of them, 
what is the matter with them, and what misfortune 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 377 

has befallen them. When the girl asked them, they 
made her no answer, but asked her again, Who are ye 
and where are ye going? For the day is far spent, 
and the night is at hand. We are travelers, saith the 
girl, and are seeking for an inn to lodge at. They 
replied, Go along with us, and lodge with us. They 
then followed them, and were introduced into a new 
house, well furnished with all sorts of furniture. It 
was now wintertime and the girl went into the parlor 
where these women were, and found them weeping and 
lamenting as before. By them stood a mule covered 
over with silk, and an ebony collar hanging down from 
his neck, whom they kissed and were feeding. But 
when the girl said, How handsome, ladies, the mule is ! 
they replied with tears, and said, This mule which you 
see was our brother, born of this same mother as we: 
For when our father died, and left us a very large 
estate and we had only this brother, and we endeav- 
ored to procure him a suitable match, and thought he 
should be married as other men, some giddy and jeal- 
ous woman bewitched him without our knowledge. And 
so one night a little before day, while the doors of 
the house were all fast shut, saw this our brother 
changed into a mule, such as you see him to be; and 
we in the melancholy condition in which you see us, 
having no father to comfort us, have applied to all the 
wise men, magicians and diviners in the world, but they 
have been of no service to us. As often therefore as 
we find ourselves oppressed with grief, we rise and go 
with this our mother to our father's tomb, where, when 
we have cried sufficiently we return home. When the 
girl had heard this, she said, Take courage and cease 



378 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

your fears, for you have a remedy for your afflictions 
near at hand, even among you and in the midst of 
your house. For I was also leprous ; but when I saw 
this woman, and her little infant with her, whose name 
is Jesus, I sprinkled my body with the water with 
which his mother had washed him, and I was pres- 
ently made well. And I am certain that he is also 
capable of relieving you under your distress. Where- 
fore, arise, go to my mistress Mary, and when you 
have brought her into your own parlor, disclose to 
her the secret, at the same time earnestly beseeching 
her to compassionate your case. As soon as the women 
had heard the girl's discourse, they hastened away to 
the lady St. Mary, introduced themselves to her, and 
sitting down before her they wept and said, O our 
Lady St. Mary, pity your handmaids, for we have no 
head of our family, and no one older than us; no 
father or brother to go in and out before us. But this 
mule which you see was our brother, which some woman 
by witchcraft has brought into this condition which 
you see: We therefore entreat you to compassionate 
us. Hereupon St. Mary was grieved at their case, and 
taking the Lord Jesus, put him upon the back of the 
mule. And said to her son, O Jesus Christ, restore (or 
heal) according to thy extraordinary powers this mule, 
and grant him to have again the shape of a man and 
a rational creature, as he had formerly. This was 
scarcely said by the Lady St. Mary, but the mule im- 
mediately passed into a human form, and became a 
young man witriout any deformity. Then he and his 
mother and the sisters worshipped the Lady St. Mary, 
and lifting the child upon their heads, they kissed 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 379 

him, and said, Blessed is thy mother, O Jesus, O Sav- 
ior of the world! Blessed are the eyes which are so 
happy as to see thee. Then both the sisters told their 
mother, saying, Of a truth our brother is restored to 
his former shape by the help of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
and the kindness of that girl, who told us of Mary and 
her son. And inasmuch as our brother is unmarried, 
it is fit we marry him to this girl their servant. When 
they had consulted Mary in this matter, and she had 
given her consent, they made a splendid wedding for 
this girl. And so their sorrow being turned into 
gladness, and their mourning into mirth, they began 
to rejoice, and to make merry and to sing, being 
dressed in their richest attire, with bracelets; After- 
wards they glorified and praised God, saying, Jesus 
son of David, who changest sorrow into gladness, and 
mourning into mirth! After this Joseph and Mary 
tarried there ten days, then went away, having re- 
ceived great respect from those people. Who when 
they took their leave of them, and returned home, cried, 
But especially the girl." 

You say you do not believe this chapter from this 
Apocryphal New Testament plenarily inspired of God. 
Can you tell why? If it had been accepted by the 
councils that have set for the purpose of determining 
which is and which is not plenarily inspired, and you 
had been so instructed by the clergy and from the 
catechism from early childhood, how do you think you 
might then believe? Is it more irrational than the 
story of Christ's raising Lazarus, who had been buried 
four days ? The moral tone of this chapter is certainly 



380 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

up to the average of what has been accepted. You 
still insist you do not believe it. For what purpose 
was it written? It was written to be believed. It was 
written cotemporaneous with the writings that go to 
make up our New Testament, and the writer has been 
fired with a zeal that he was doing God's service by 
producing literature to substantiate the whole. Is it 
more unbelievable than the story of Jonah and the 
whale and scores of miracles and stories recorded in 
the Old and New Testament? Then why not believe 
this chapter? I will not insist farther, because I cer- 
tainly don't believe it, nor any more do I believe the 
part preserved and called sacred, in the manner in 
which it is given and taught. 

It is an absurd account built up to support, if pos- 
sible, a more absurd doctrine! That is the doctrine of 
Vicarious Atonement, or Scapegoat Salvation. 

Now, just to give you an object lesson in regard to 
the contradictory state in which this New Testament 
teaching is given to us. I refer you to Paul's epistle to 
the Galatians (vi. 7): "Be not deceived, God is not 
mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he 
reap." Just observe how emphatic Paul speaks here 
in giving this lesson, and just consider what he says. 
This knocks the whole doctrine of atonement, and the 
forgiveness of sins, clean out of the reckoning ; it elimi- 
nates the mediatorial power from both the orthodox 
Christ and from the Holy Papal See the forgiveness 
of sin. 

So, if Paul tells the truth here, the repentant thief 
on the cross did not enter the gates of Paradise " scot 
free " from his iniquities, as we are taught. 

It is rationally proven that the primitive Christ, and 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 381 

the primitive Paul, both taught Spiritualism the same 
as it is given to us from the angel world to-day. But 
by priestly interpolation and perversion this has to be 
read to a great extent between the lines. 

The Bible, then, boiled down, amounts to this : After 
eliminating all superfluous matter, we have a small re- 
mainder that is pertinent to the human race. This 
small remainder is all we have in answer to Job's ques- 
tion, " If a man die, shall he live again ? " The proof 
in the affirmative to this question is all that can amount 
to anything to us ; and what we get in proof of this is 
all of value there is in this big Book, the Bible. 

Now, there was something in the early Biblical age 
that his tribal God so abhorred that the victim was to 
be cut off without the preliminary of judge or jury; 
that was communing with a decarnate intelligence (fa- 
miliar spirit). From this crime there was no reprieve 
or pardon, nothing could appease God's wrath but the 
life of the offender. 

This evinces the existence of spirit intelligences, and 
spirit communion. The woman of En-dor belonged to 
this class, and Samuel communed with Saul through 
her gift of mediumship. Samuel, you will observe 
(though called a man of God), was in possession of a 
gift identical with that of the woman of En-dor. 
Christ was without doubt in possession of this gift to 
a high degree, but what he has said and done has been 
so obliterated by priestly strategy that were it not for 
the light shed upon it by Paul it could not well be rec- 
ognized. But Paul, speaking of spiritual gifts, con- 
sidering the tampering that this Scripture has under- 
went, brings this Truth to the surface unmistakably 
clear. That Paul was in possession of this gift, and 



382 PROGRESSIVE AGE; OF REASON 

where he speaks of being carried to the third heaven 
is additional proof. And where he says to the Gala- 
tians, " For whatsoever a man sow, that shall he reap," 
is directly in contradistinction to the orthodox doctrine, 
and in perfect harmony with what is now handed down 
to us from the angel world. So it is but rational to 
conclude this is where Paul caught it from and thought 
this much lawful to utter. 

What is this gift that in remote antiquity was so 
detested, and has caused the death angel to spread his 
wings as far as churchanity has spread, America not 
exempted, and yet makes Paul a Saint in any time and 
this son of Mary a God? 

My friends, here is a thing that all must admit. 
Man's estate would be dark indeed if everything in na- 
ture and nature's law pointed to the grave as the goal 
of all human ambition ! Yet this belief seems to have a 
large following; but this I believe to be the result of 
centuries upon centuries of false teaching. 

The proof that man, under correct conditions while 
in the mortal, can hold converse with those who have 
lived here and passed to higher life is, I believe, en- 
tirely satisfactory, as I expect to show in the sequel of 
this work. 

Can orthodoxy consistently oppose Spiritualism 
upon this ground? It could hardly look so ; but never- 
theless it does; and the controversy has been on now 
for about sixty years, since the first rappings at 
Higlesville, between the orthodox creeds founded upon 
their version of the Scripture, and Spiritualism, proved 
from this same Bible and verified by present-day fact. 
During this protracted crusade I do not think that 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 383 

either of the belligerents have wished to call to use 
the fagot or the sword; the civilized world has pretty 
well outgrown that method of settling religious differ- 
ences. But the pen and the press have been employed, 
together with the power of oratory, and in this way 
there have been grape and canister, chain shot, shells, 
and hot shot thrown till at times it would seem the very 
ramparts of heaven and hell must give way, St. Peter's 
gate and all, and sink into indiscriminate chaos and 
ruin! 

Has Spiritualism won any victories? I have no 
statistics at hand, so cannot give any correct figures, 
but am certain orthodoxy has made some concessions. 
But this, I suppose, they would deny laying to our 
cause. Their hell has been revised and improved and 
made more comfortable. The small children have been 
removed so that their noise will not so disturb the old 
folks. They still carry on their perfunctory preach- 
ing, but it is evident it has been much modified within 
the last sixty years. 

I here offer in evidence several samples of the old- 
time preaching, which I well remember the tone when 
I was a boy: 

"When they (the saints) shall see how great the 
misery is from which God hath saved them, and how 
great a difference He hath made between their state 
and the state of others who were by nature and per- 
haps by practice no more sinful and ill-deserving than 
they, it will give them more a sense of the wonderful- 
ness of God's grace to them. Every time they look 
upon the damned, it will excite in them a lively and 
admiring sense of the grace of God in making them so 



384 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

to differ. The sight of hell torments will exalt the 
happiness of the saints forever." — (Rev. Emmons' 
Sermons, xi.) 

" The happiness of the elect in heaven will, in part, 
consist in witnessing the torments of the damned in 
hell. And among these it may be their own children, 
parents, husbands, wives, and friends on earth. One 
part of the business of the blessed is to celebrate the 
doctrine of reprobation. While the decree of reproba- 
tion is eternally executing on the vessels of wrath, the 
smoke of their torment will be eternally ascending in 
view of the vessels of mercy, who, instead of taking the 
part of those miserable objects, will say, Amen, halle- 
lujah, praise the Lord." — (Rev. Emmons' Sermons, 
xvi.) 

" When the damned have drunken whole draughts 
of brimstone one day, they must do the same another 
day. The eye shall be tormented with the sight of 
devils, the ears with the hideous yelling and outcries 
of the damned in flames, the nostrils shall be smoth- 
ered, as it were, with brimstone; the tongue, the hand, 
the foot, and every part shall fry in flames." — (Rev. 
Ambrose, Discourse on Doomsday.) 

" The godly wife shall applaud the justice of the 
Judge in the condemnation of her ungodly husband. 
The godly husband shall say amen to the damnation 
of her who lay on his bosom. The godly parents shall 
say hallelujah at the passing of the sentence of their 
ungodly child. And the godly child shall from the 
heart approve the damnation of his wicked parents 
who begot him and the mother who bore him." — (Rev. 
Thos. Bostin's Fourfold State, p. 336.) 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 385 

I will here leave comment with the reader. 

Christ is said to have taught with parables. We are 
taught to be Christlike. So I will attempt a present- 
day parable. 

Behold, two farmers settle at the same time in the 
same neighborhood, their houses being but a few rods 
apart. These farmers are both Christians, belonging 
to the same church ; and each expresses a desire to each 
to live in peace and fellowship with each other. Farmer 
No. 1 concludes, in order to insure peace, he will mount 
a modern gun to bear upon his neighbor's house from 
his window, which, he reasons, will be a safeguard 
against brotherly disruption. Farmer No. 2 takes in 
the situation, and considers this wise and prudent, but 
at the same time thinks it does not look well for his 
domicile to stand thus defenseless, so he calls a council 
of his household and they vote to place two guns to 
bear upon the house of farmer No. 1. This calls for 
a meeting of the members of the house of farmer No. 1 
to deliberate upon the situation, and they decide to 
determine the caliber and make of the guns of farmer 
No. 2, and to plant four larger and in every way supe- 
rior guns to bear direct upon farmer No. 2's house. 
This calls for an extra session of the members of farmer 
No. % and after much deliberation and argument de- 
cide to place a Gatling gun to cover farmer No. l's 
house and all of his grounds. This has been expensive, 
and they both have well-nigh exhausted their means 
by these measures to insure peace. And fences have 
been neglected, and farmer No. l's cow breaks the 
fence and destroys thirty heads of farmer No. £'s cab- 
bage. Farmer No. 1 offers to placate half of this 



386 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

loss, as the fence was a matter between them both to 
keep in repair, and both had neglected it. He was 
coldly received by farmer No. & and informed that the 
matter must be left to the common council of his house- 
hold, as they were alike all interested. No. £ summons 
these members. They meet; they argue; they delib- 
erate; they vote. And they reason in this wise: that 
No. 1 was the man to plant the first gun; and that 
the purchase of this ordnance and all of these muni- 
tions of war has been a great expense, and all for 
nothing, unless they are used, and that our honor is 
at stake, and that the offense warrants action, and 
that we, to preserve our standing in the eyes of the 
neighborhood, must open fire and preserve our honor. 

This, my friends, is one manner of fruit that this 
tree of Churchanity, misnamed Christianity, after 
twenty centuries of priestly pruning, bears! This is 
the attitude of Christian nations toward each other all 
over the face of our earth. Is it not evident there is 
a mistake somewhere? 

Orthodox theology was well entrenched centuries be- 
fore Modern Spiritualism had its birth, and it is evi- 
dent that the fight will be a protracted one. 

" Let those who have failed take courage, 
Though the enemy seems to have won ; 
Though his ranks are strong if he be in the wrong, 
The battle is not yet done. 
For sure as the morning follows 
The hours of darkest night, 
No question is ever settled, 
Until it is settled right." 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 387 

PART II 

CHAPTER I 

Late in the summer of 1908, about six months ago, the 
Methodist minister of our town announced that he was 
going to preach a series of sermons upon specific sub- 
jects and his first was to be on the suject of Spiritual- 
ism: Feeling a deep interest in what one of his cloth 
might have to say upon this subject I went to hear him. 
I usually attend this church at day service, but this 
was in the evening, however, I went. It proved to be 
a typical orthodox sermon on Spiritualism, which would 
be expressed more correctly had he have said, a sermon 
against Spiritualism. His congregation seemed highly 
pleased, and he seemed well satisfied with his effort. (He 
is an eloquent preacher.) I just thought Mr. Preacher 
I will let you know that there is one in this town that 
dare meet you in opposition to your fossilized theology. 
So I addressed him this invitation or challenge : 

Aug. 31, 1908. 
Dear Sir : 

When I was informed that you were going to give 
your congregation a sermon on the subject of Spiritual- 
ism, was solicitous in regard to what you might have 
to say on the subject, was much interested in your dis- 
course, but could not fail to discover throughout that 
there was a shading of sarcasm, or an inclination 
toward ridicule and burlesque, that you spoke in very 
deprecating terms of the woman of En-dor, you also 



388 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

seemed to discriminate against your grandmother, in 
having an equal opportunity with the rest of your 
friends who have crossed the great divide from com- 
municating to friends in earthlife. 

Now for certain reasons, a few which I will nominate, 
I invite you to hold a friendly debate, at such time and 
place as may suit all concerned or interested, and as 
may be arranged by a committee appointed for said 
purpose. 

Here are a few reasons which force themselves upper- 
most, and make it incumbent upon me to submit to you 
this invitation: 

1. — I hold that the proper study of mankind is to 
determine what truth is, and to apply every test avail- 
able to discriminate truth from error or falsehood. 

£. — If by faith or knowledge we believe in a future 
life, or a continued life and this belief is called religion 
I hold that each individual has a right to the very best 
religion that the proof warrants. 

&. — That each individual should be willing and glad 
to compare his religion with that of any other creed or 
faith, and should even invite discussions that compari- 
sons may be drawn and beliefs changed. 

4. — It is evident in taking but a cursory survey of 
the world to-day with all the conflicting creeds, beliefs 
and unbeliefs, that error is tremendously in evidence. 

5. — That there is no reason why one individual should 
be more interested in the question of a life to follow this 
than another, or the condition in which a future life 
may place him. 

Hence this challenge or invitation to this debate. 
Spiritualism vs. The Bible, as a revelation from God 
and the creeds built thereon, or vice versa. 






PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 389 

Should this proposition meet your approval which I 
am inclined to think will ; please advise me through the 
mail soon, and we will attend to this matter as soon as 
arrangements can be made. 

Yours For Truth and Progress, 

Samuel Hotchkiss. 

The good preacher's reply came promptly, stating 
that he would be pleased to meet me in debate ; but just 
at this time he lost a little child and told me the matter 
would have to be deferred for a time, but for me to call 
soon and we would talk it over. I called a few evenings 
later, but he had concluded that it was not advisable 
to discuss this question with me. While I aimed to act 
desirous for joining issue with him, but to tell the truth 
I was not anxious, because I had this book in mind, and 
as the debate would have reached but few ears the most 
of the sweetness would have been lost upon the desert 
air. So this book is substantially my argument had 
the fight have taken place. 

I feel that I shall enjoy this part of my work much 
better then the preceding part. I feel like the boy who 
has to churn before he can go out to play ; and I now 
feel that this task is done, and that without doubt we 
can find something pleasant for our amusement. It 
will be necessary though to stop a moment and consider 
what we are or " what is man." Man has been a wonder 
to himself ever since he discovered that he was here. 
Science has interrogated him in every conceivable man- 
ner; with retort and crucible his ashes have been an- 
alyzed, and with grave circumspection, it is announced 
that man is made up of ambient matter. The evolution- 
ist has critically examined the contour of his bones and 



390 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

drawn comparisons between them and the bones of the 
ape and chimpanzee, and declare that there is such a 
striking analogy, that man has been evolved by a 
tedious process from these lower forms of life; rudi- 
mentary muscles in man, also the vermiform appendix 
has been learnedly discussed, with the final decision that 
man is the result of evolution. The only drawback to 
their theory is the missing link, and we hear that this 
has been found several times a year in different maga- 
zines and periodicals. 

The materialistic limb of evolution tells us that life 
is the result of a chemical arrangement of the material 
of which our bodies are composed, and our passing out 
is equivalent to extinguishing a burning candle; that 
when life is extinct the tragedy is ended. Is this pleas- 
ant to believe? That could make but little difference. 
We have got to be led by the facts ; what science and 
evolution have proven in regard to the components of 
a human body, post-mortem, I would not think of ques- 
tioning. 

But before rendering our final decision to a case 
fraught with so great interest we have got to examine 
all the evidence obtainable. Were the materialists' claim 
true what a mistake has "Infinite Intelligence" made; 
to evolve a being capable of contemplating and in a 
measure of appreciating the vastness of his works ; and 
with infinite power, could raise us to a higher plane of 
being, which we have reason to premise as easy as to 
do as what he has done. 

To believe in materialism, is akin to the belief that 
the Infinite has aborted at a very untimely stage in the 
creative process. But I will not take up the time in 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 391 

opposing "materialism." I do not believe an intelli- 
gent human being can become so besotted as to find con- 
solation in a belief so absolutely devoid of hope. 

It seems to be almost universal, that mankind feels 
dissatisfied with his life and its surroundings; of lost 
opportunities ; of mistakes made, with the time for cor- 
recting passed; a feeling that we were created for a 
better station in life than the one we occupy ; that if we 
could relive our lives, we would choose a road that would 
lead to better fields of happiness ; a vain longing for 
something better than we have known. This feeling is 
so prevalent, that great men of thought have declared 
that a life was not worth the living. Why should a 
human life be freighted with such a melancholy load 
as this if death ends all. If materialism were true these 
feelings could only be regarded as human frailties, 
and moral conduct but a matter of policy ; and when an 
opportunity offers that we can defraud our fellow man 
and escape the civil law, to do it and regard remorse as 
a human frailty. f Scapegoat " salvation and Materi- 
alism, in regard to conduct, point in the same direction. 
In the one case you can shirk responsibility and in the 
other case responsibility is eliminated ; and between the 
two and their concomitant evils, things in this world are 
not as they should be. The civilized world governments 
are bad, and when fraud and dishonesty stand out in 
bold perspicuity, how can the plebeian be expected to be 
law-abiding. Mr. Bryan and Mr. Taft may point out 
defects in governmental affairs, but when our President 
is allowed $75,000 per annum, and hundreds of thou- 
sands of his subjects are without work and the necessi- 
ties of life, shows there is something wrong. This same 



392 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

extravagance pervades every department of our govern- 
ment, and the church too seems to have the same ambi- 
tion, and increased emolument seems to be their leading 
thought. Where is the remedy for all of the existing 
evils in our land? Are we to look for it through legis- 
lation or through the church? These have both been 
in force for a long time but the evil has not been re- 
moved, but graft seems to be on the increase. I firmly 
believe that the root of this evil is in a misunderstand- 
ing of the laws of the Almighty; that we are not 
in tune with the Infinite; that we have been mis- 
taught. 

I firmly believe that the hope of the world for better 
conditions for all classes is vested in a knowledge of 
Spiritualism. 

What is Spiritualism? And what are its claims? 
My answer is, that man is a dual creature; that he is 
made up of a mortal body and a spirit body, that the 
spirit body is released from the mortal body at death 
and is translated to the spirit plane to which his earth- 
life and conduct gravitate him; and here he continues 
to live and may improve in soul-growth and progress to 
higher planes throughout the cycles of eternity. These 
spirit planes are to their inhabitants as substantial 
and tangible to them, as this material plane of exist- 
ence is to us. To make it plainer, instead of our being 
a body with a spirit, we are a spirit possessing a body, 
and this earth is the spirit's first plane of existence, and 
the mortal body is the instrument through which the 
spirit first manifests. Very well ; but how do you know 
this to be so? My friends, the answer to this question 
will occupy the remainder of this volume. I do not pre- 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 393 

tend to say, but it requires patient thought and study, 
to grasp the meaning of the claims of Spiritualism; 
what we learn in this life all comes through mental ef- 
fort, and why should we expect this to come gratui- 
tously. Of course we will find out these things if they 
be true when the change of death overtakes us, but it 
has been made possible to get the proof while on this 
plane, and this may save us in many cases years of 
pain and sorrow. 

What has led me to a belief in Spiritualism? I will 
tell you ; about nine years ago a relative of my wife sent 
us a few copies of a spiritual paper. I read them, but 
did not endorse what I read. I thought if what was 
claimed were true I would have heard of it before ; that 
things like this would spread like contagion and would 
be in everybody's mouth, and would be an open secret 
to all. But I sent a dollar to the address of the paper, 
and concluded I would read and reflect. The paper 
came in due season, and in it could be read ad's like this : 
"Bangs Sisters, Phenomenal Psychic Portraits of 
departed friends a specialty. Independent. Slate and 
Paper writing." Then in the columns could be read 
accounts of certain ones who had held engagements with 
them either for a writing or a portrait, detailed in every 
particular, with the canvas on a frame, placed in a win- 
dow in full light of day, and the portrait forming on 
said canvas with no visible hand touching it, and the 
work being executed in but a few minutes of time, and 
with entire satisfaction to the patron, every detail of 
the work evincing the touch of a master hand exceed- 
ing in delicacy of finish anything that could be done by 
mortal hand. I will give a testimonial by Lyman C. 



394 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

Howe, a prominent lecturer and writer on Spiritual- 
ism : " On the 20th of July, 1897, I engaged a sitting 
with the Bangs Sisters, at Lily Dale, for the purpose 
of obtaining a picture of our daughter Maud. On the 
22nd of July the sitting occurred. 

" We selected a clean white canvas from several which 
appeared to be alike, and after marking it in eight 
places, I placed it under a plain pine table without 
drawers or any visible machinery, or paints, brushes, 
or other utensils, and closed it in by wrapping cur- 
tains around the table and securing them by laying 
slates on them as they were folded over the edge of the 
table. 

" The table was in the middle of the room and no de- 
ception was possible. 

"The two sisters, Lizzie and May Bangs, — Mrs. 
Howe and myself were all the visible persons in the room. 
After sitting with our hands on the table about fifteen 
minutes, we withdrew and sat or stood, or walked about 
the room as we pleased, no one touching the table or 
offering to raise the curtains until, at my request, we 
looked in to see the picture as it was in outline, but 
with no coloring. At that time the canvas was not 
removed nor exposed to the light for more than thirty 
seconds. After another hour and a half sitting, during 
which time both the girls were in plain view, and did 
not at any time touch the table or the curtains, the 
signal was given that it was finished. I took it out, 
and I know it had not been removed after I put it in, 
and found a perfect picture of our darling Maud, in 
every particular true to life. During the sitting there 
were two photographs of Maud enclosed in a sealed 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 395 

envelope and placed against the lower back side of the 
canvas. 

" These had not been opened or in any way exposed 
to view until the sitting was closed. The sisters had 
never seen her, and so far as I know and believe they 
had never seen her photo. The picture is unlike either 
photo, and is more perfect and lifelike than any photo- 
graph she ever had. During the sitting I mentally 
asked her to have a yellow rose in her hair, and to write 
her name ' Maud ' on the lower margin ; and when the 
picture came out the rose appeared in her hair, and 
6 Maud ' is written on the lower margin as I mentally 
requested. No one but myself and the spirit knew what 
I had asked until the picture was finished. It is the 
most beautiful and satisfactory phenomenon I ever 
witnessed." 

While I am in the business I will give a clipping 
from The Progressive Thinker along the same line 
by these same mediums, The " Bangs Sisters," written 
by Clara Watson of Jamestown, N. Y., Nov. 23, 1901 : 

Mr. Editor: 

I would like to place before your readers, so far as 
human language can portray, an experience in which 
the writer played an interesting part. I think it is 
known to the people of Jamestown, at least to those 
who know me, that I am not given to the upholding 
of frauds, nor to speaking of untruths, and what I am 
about to relate is absolute fact and can be attested to 
by five other reliable witnesses. There have been at 
Lily Dale during the season, and many seasons before 
as well, two persons familiarly known as the Bangs 



396 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

Sisters. These ladies, for ladies they are, are mediums 
for one of the very highest expressions of art, that of 
picturing the " human face divine," and their process 
of " taking pictures " baffles the keenest intellect and 
transcends all known methods of Portraiture. 

The work produced through these mediums or psychics 
is of the highest order and the time required in which 
to produce a perfect likeness of a person, living or dead, 
seems incredible to one not having witnessed the phe- 
nomena, but the conditions under which it occurs ut- 
terly precludes the possibility of deception in any form. 
The portrait secured, the process thereof of which I wish 
to speak, was that of my father Eliphalet Mitchell, 
well known in Jamestown, who passed from earth con- 
ditions just three months ago. Our party, six in num- 
ber, entered a well lighted apartment. The room was 
thoroughly examined, and nothing uncanny was found, 
nor the slightest trace of traps or wires, or parapher- 
nalia of any kind, nothing even in the line of an artist's 
outfit — not a brush, or pencil, or chalk, or paint. One 
of our number selected at random two pure white 
artist's canvasses, with stemback finish, from a quantity 
of the same, these canvases each being stretched on a 
wooden frame. 

The two canvases were placed the face sides tightly 
together, and then rested in an upright position upon 
a simple board table (the table having been previously 
scrutinizingly examined) in front of a window, the can- 
vases being about a foot from the glass and held in 
place by the two sisters, one on either side ; the light in 
the room was then somewhat lessened to afford better 
opportunity to view the development of the picture, by 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 397 

the transmitted light from the window through the can- 
vas, but the room was not dark, every object being dis- 
cernible, the forms, features and hands of the mediums, 
the latter simply holding the frames, being visible all 
the time, the light being sufficient to tell the time by a 
watch. I had with me a photograph of my father taken 
three years ago, but it was not seen by the sisters, nor 
had they any knowledge of its appearance. We sat 
about ten minutes in eager expectancy and yet during 
the time engaged in pertinent conversation, when the 
canvas began to assume a darkened hue. 

Gradually the shading deepened and widened, but 
leaving a lighter shaded center ; presently a pinkish col- 
oration appeared at the top of the canvas, gradually 
lowering until it gathered as the coloring of the face. 
, At this time the picture had the appearance of a hazy 
cloud without detail of form or feature. With all eyes 
intent upon the canvas soon the outline and features 
of my father's face appeared and was recognized by us 
all, but it was not perfect, and at the mental suggestion 
of one of the party that the hair was not quite like 
' grandpa ' immediately the face began fading out until 
only the outline was visible ; soon, however, to reappear 
with the change in the hair made, and several times the 
face faded and reappeared in like manner with some 
change in accord with the mental desire of some one of 
the party, no word being spoken regarding the same, 
and this process utterly precludes the possibility that 
the picture had been previously stamped in any way 
upon the canvas, and yet the picture was not quite 
perfect. 

"At this point in the proceedings telegraphic raps 



398 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

came on the slates which were understood by the sisters, 
and they removed the canvas from the window and laid 
it upon the table and the hands of all present were 
placed upon the frames, and during this process the 
finishing touches were put on, including the white collar 
and shirt front. The picture now being practically 
finished the canvases were separated, one completely 
covered with the picture and background, the other 
remaining perfectly white, not a trace of color on it, 
and as the face of the two canvases were in close contact 
this is a remarkable feature in itself. 

The portrait was then placed upright on the table 
in full view of all present ; one of the party comparing 
closely the picture to the photograph, mentally observed 
or thought, that the wrinkles in the forehead and about 
the eyes were not sufficiently prominent. At once a 
deepening of the lines referred to was observed and 
remarked upon by others of the party, and the work 
was now finished. 

The portrait is a fine representation of the form and 
features of my father as he was in the vigor of mature 
manhood, and the time occupied from the commence- 
ment of the cloudy appearance on the canvas to the 
completion of the splendid portrait was just fifteen 
minutes, and bear in mind, kind reader, that no human 
hands touched the canvas, save only the frames ; no 
human fingers could get between the two canvases to 
work, for remember the face sides of the same were 
placed tightly together during the process of develop- 
ment. The work has been examined by critics, and pro- 
nounced by them to be of high merit. It has the appear- 
ance of pastel but its exact character is unknown. I 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 399 

should have said we were given the privilege of bringing 
the canvas from Jamestown had we desired. 

I have been a student of the great subject of Spirit- 
ualism more than a quarter of a century and this 
experience I consider the crowning glory along the lines 
of investigation. The splendid work, the straightfor- 
ward manner, and the simple method of the Bangs 
Sisters bears no resemblance to the cheap productions 
and clumsy maneuverings of tricksters, and so-called 
exposers." 

CHAPTER II 

Here is the experience of but two persons, and they 
for this one phase of spirit manifestation, and these 
with the same "mediums." This includes but a very 
small portion of what I gleaned from my first year's 
study; there were many mediums, and many phases of 
manifestation described through the columns of this 
paper, which I read with deep interest, much wonder, 
and I must own with considerable doubt. The reader 
must not be misled with the idea that the paper was 
wholly given to recording spirit phenomena : The grand 
discourses on Spiritualism, the unfolding of the Spirit- 
ual philosophy and phenomena, the rules for moral con- 
duct while on the mortal side of existence, made a deep 
impression upon my mind, but the thing that weighed 
heaviest was this : Is this true ? Is it a fact that those 
we call dead can return to earth and communicate with 
those in earthlife, and, comparatively speaking, the 
thing has just come to light? I felt like the child 
picking up pebbles on the shore of eternity, how little 
do we know. 



400 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

I had never seen a " spirit medium " and this was a 
matter that I interrogated at this time much; why a 
matter of such universal concern should be confined to 
a class called " Mediums " and a knowledge of heaven 
or hell as the case might be could only be reached or 
heard from through them, excited my curiosity to a 
point that prompted action; the climax was reached 
by me at the time of the Pan-American Exposition at 
Buffalo, the summer of 1901. I went to this show 
ostensibly, with but little of the show on my mind. I 
reasoned in this way ; that an independent slate writing, 
that is two slates fastened together, with small bits 
of pencil placed between. In broad daylight, if I were 
to receive messages from friends whose lives had ter- 
minated here, and they write in a manner to identify 
themselves to me on these slates and sign their names, 
that this would go a long way in settling the question 
with me. So I went to the show, and from there to 
Lily Dale. Lily Dale is a place familiar with a great 
many, but there are a great many who know nothing 
of it or what it is famed for. It is a Spiritual camp- 
meeting ground where are gathered during the sum- 
mer for some time past those interested in Spiritualism. 
Spirit Mediums gather here and through them proof is 
obtained of spirit return. The Bangs Sisters were there 
at this time and I had placed them on my program for 
an independent " slate writing " I stopped at Buffalo 
for one day and then re-embarked for Lily Dale. I pur- 
chased at Buffalo a good-sized pair of folding slates. 
I remarked to the man who sold them to me : Have you 
any idea what use I am going to make of these slates? 
He said to use them for the purpose for which they were 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 401 

made I suppose. I told where I was going and my 
object for the slates. He remarked that I would find 
myself beautifully fooled ; that there was a man in Buf- 
falo who had a standing challenge of $100.00 that no 
such thing could be done, and that it had never been 
claimed. He said, you stop here when you come back 
and let me know. I did not tell him I would ; but this 
voices the popular belief of the world, and that is why 
I speak of it here. 

When I reached Lily Dale, I found the camp had 
adjourned for the season. I found the Bangs Sisters' 
cottage, and on the veranda sat a big girl; she looked 
at me and my slates, and asked, have you an agreement 
with my mother? I said no but expect one. She said 
no you can't, for we are packed to move and have 
refused over a hundred people to-day. I began to think 
my chance for getting fooled looked very promising, 
but I had now been to a good deal of trouble and did 
not feel like giving up easy. 

There was a stranger standing by who seemed to 
appreciate my dilemma, and he said to me, if it is a 
slatewriting you are after, there (pointing to a cot- 
tage) is Keeler, he is among the best mediums in the 
world for that phase, (independent writing,) well after 
a brief conversation I went and called at Mr. Keeler's 
door, but saw him in the yard, I made my business 
known to him ; he seemed to regard me with indifference, 
and told me he could not hold an engagement with me 
till the next day at 11 a. m. This disappointed me 
somewhat, but made up my mind to wait his time so I 
put up at a hotel and pondered the matter in my 
dreams. The next day at the appointed time I called 



402 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

at his house: he said to me, have you written to the 
ones you wish to hear from? I said this is new to me, 
this is my first time with a medium, and may not under- 
stand. He took me into a well lighted room of good 
size and handed me a small writing pad, and told me 
to write to about four of my friends who had passed 
over; he said he did not care to see the names, he would 
prefer to not see them. So I concluded to not let him 
see them. So I wrote on the tablet while he sat on the 
opposite side of a table, holding the tablet so he could 
not see me write, folded them closely two ways, and lay 
them on the table; after I had written to four of my 
friends he told me to hold them in my hands for three 
or four minutes, which I did. This being done he then 
told me to put the billets upon the slates, and then to 
wrap my handkerchief around them, and tie them with 
a twine which I had, but before this there was put 
between the slates two bits of slate pencil. He then 
told me it might be sometime before they would be there, 
and we could talk upon any subject while waiting, it 
would make no difference what. 

Well the subject of Spiritualism was uppermost in 
my mind then, and I talked to him of this power and 
how long he had been in possession of it ; all this while 
studying him closely, he was a good weight, I would 
judge about two hundred, of medium height, and a 
blonde, honest and unostentatious in appearance, and 
as I would judge from appearance he seemed frank with 
nothing in his manner to awaken suspicion; neverthe- 
less, I was vigilant and watched him carefully. We 
waited for about an hour and he seemed himself to 
become doubtful, and remarked that sometime he failed 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 403 

to get anything, he asked me if the ones I had 
addressed could write? I told him they could all write 
when on earth. He then asked me if I was mentally 
fighting against their coming? I told him no; only 
against being imposed upon with fraud. He smiled and 
picked up the little tablet upon which I wrote, and wrote 
a few word's, and held it in his hand a breath, I asked 
him who he was writing to ? He said to his control, to 
see if he could find such persons as I had written to. 
Well in a short time from this, he said they are here now, 
and it was evident there had an invisible something 
arrived for he was shaken by some unseen power. He 
said to me take hold of one side of the slates, this I did 
while he took hold of the other side, and as true as I 
write this the pencils between the slates began to write, 
which could be heard distinctly, and I could also feel 
the vibration of the pencils while writing upon the 
slates. After the writing had continued a short time, 
he said to me let the slates turn over, which was done, 
and the writing continued for about the same length of 
time, when he told me it was finished. I had concluded 
not to undo the slates in his presence, but he said most 
people were anxious to look at the writing as soon as 
possib^ I thought perhaps I was superstitious about 
this and undid the slates and looked in. How astonished 
was I, and strangely pleased to see appended to the 
four messages upon the slates the name written in full 
of those I had named on the bits of paper. 

What was written on the slates? The four persons 
I named on the slips were my father, my mother, a 
sister and a cousin, who died in 1864 on Hilton Head 
Island, S. C, a soldier of the Civil War. My father 



404 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

had been dead about eight years, my mother about 
twelve years, and my sister about six years. 

This is what appeared above the cousin's name, in a 
bold round hand: 

"Good morning. This does not look much as if I 
were in the ground, waiting for Gabriel's trump to 
sound, and the resurrection day to roll around, does it ? 
I am in a life as real, substantial, as the one you are in. 
The spirit, not the body, is the real being, and in or 
out of the mortal form we live on the same. I never 
was dead, and never expect to be. Tell all the folks 
you have heard from me. I am. 

James A. Hotchkiss." 

Here is what appeared over my father's name : 

" To Samuel Hotchkiss : 

" Well, well this is a surprise and a pleasure. I never 
expected to get to you from the spirit life in such a real 
positive way as this. I want you to be assured that I 
am alive and well. If I am not here, how do I write 
this. 

Solomon Hotchkiss." 

Over my mother's name this was written : 

"Dear Samuel: 

" Never again think of me as dead and gone. As I 
was in the fullness of mortal life and health on earth, 
for so I am now. I am happy and contented, and would 
not resume my mortal life if I could. Do not mourn 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OP REASON 405 

me as dead. There is no real death. I am quite myself 
yet, and I am conscious of your presence here now. I 
am affectionately, 

Wealthy G. Hotchkiss." 

This came on the slate over my sister's name : 

" This is the most remarkable experience I ever went 
through. How did you know I could come here in this 
strange way and strange place? I was afraid you 
thought I was dead and done for long ago. But I 
never was more myself, never in my life, than I am at 
this moment. Try to think of me as alive and well, not 
as a corpse. I will be with you, and I will guide, guard 
and help you. Lovingly I am, 

Lydia J. Gray." 

On the margin of one of the slates, this was written 
in bright red: 

" I hope I am welcome, even if uninvited. 

E. H. Hotchkiss." 

To the left of what was written over my mother's 
name, was a spray of forget-me-nots in three colors, 
green, blue and yellow. 

Then written diagonally across the slates, and over 
the pencil writing, was written with a black substance, 
making a broad mark with a shiny appearance, this 
appeared to have been written with an arm movement : 

" Many are here who cannot write. 

G. C." 



406 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

I asked Mr. Keeler what that meant? And he said, 
his control wrote that. His control's name is George 
Christie. So said Mr. Keeler. 

Who wrote this on these slates ? This I consider the 
most important question that was ever propounded to 
the human race. How many answers could be obtained 
were this question submitted to the world. Some would 
say this man Keeler is a "Conjurer" and then they 
would relate what they had seen done by this class, 
which, though not just like this would be fully up to it 
if not ahead of this. To those who make this answer 
I will say this explanation is not new, and investigators 
have sought out among this class those who have 
acquired world-wide fame in this art of deception ; such 
as, Houdan, Herman, Blitz and others, and importuned 
them to work this dodge and give an explanation. And 
while they allowed that they could deceive most people 
in many ways, but to do this, to make pencils write 
between slates, was entirely outside of their jurisdiction, 
and they could not do it. 

Others will say they have seen this trick advertised 
in a catalogue, where this with a long list of other tricks 
were offered for sale, to satisfy a demand for this com- 
modity by a class of credulous gullibles who would pay 
good money for the same. 

I have heard of advertisements of this kind, but never 
have seen any. But do not doubt 'tis true, and that 
this class have in stock masks, wigs and hair, robes, and 
much paraphernalia for the bogus Seance room. This 
to the thoughtful suggests that where there is a coun- 
terfeit there must be the genuine, to borrow the imita- 
tion from. But when you write to headquarters and 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 407 

order a dozen of their slatewriting tricks, their stereo- 
typed reply will be that they are just out of them at 
present, but can substitute you with something better 
some phosphorous or some other excellent substitute. 
They will tell you that these things are to be used in 
a dark room and the spectators will all be E. Z. Marks 
(easy marks). 

Others will say Hotchkiss was hypnotized. Pierr 
Keeler then took the slates and the bits of paper and 
fixed the thing to suit him presented them to his dupe 
who came away well pleased. Here is an answer made 
by the churchman that this is a side-show of the Devil's. 
Since the plan of salvation is made plain, through the 
New Testament Scripture by "vicarious atonement" 
unfolded by the clergy. This put the Devil to his 
trumps and he hatched this thing called Modern Spir- 
itualism in order to hold his own. 

Others will say it was a communication from the 
Spirit world and by the ones who signed their names ; 
which by a law under correct conditions* can be done 
and has been done thousands of times, and the same 
thing is recorded in the Scripture. 

This is my answer, and this is what I not only believe 
but know to be true. 

Dear reader, it is your privilege to think of this as 
you may, the world seems destined to come into this 
knowledge slow, and I do not expect all to believe but 
that there was fraud of some kind employed in this case 
of mine with Mr. Keeler, but the most rational solution 
or conclusion I can arrive at after years of thought and 
study, and after hearing and reading of the experience 
of others with this man, and with many other mediums, 



408 PROGRESSIVE AGE OP REASON 

is that the Spirit world is in touch with ours and that 
our friends whom we call dead can let us know that they 
still live. Since this engagement with Mr. Keeler at 
Lily Dale, I have learned much more of Spiritualism 
and have had proof that would be impossible for me to 
lightly set aside. I have had that proven to me, which 
is of more value than were I to hold in " fee simple " the 
whole of New York State, and thereby be deprived of 
this glorious truth called " Modern Spiritualism." 

Modern Spiritualism, and I made our " debut " in 
this world both in the selfsame year, 1848. Were we 
both alike welcomed? I have no reason to think I was 
not welcomed at the time of my coming, by the small 
circle by whom I was expected. 

But how with Spiritualism? Most of the religions of 
the world have been founded upon the doctrines or 
teachings of their martyred promoters. And Spiritual- 
ism has been the " target " for all manner of missile and 
projectile charged with invective and opprobrium ever 
since it came to greet our world. This none can gain- 
say. Even between the lids of the Bible has misrep- 
resentation coiled itself. In the large embellished edi- 
tion of Bibles have been placed the different religious 
denominations of the civilized world. I have not one 
of these Bibles at hand, but have read, ere now, in one 
of them a brief description of the Spiritualists' religion 
which ran about like this. This I copy from a book 
entitled " The Religious Denominations of the World " : 

" Among the innumerable follies, of which Spiritual- 
ists have been guilty, the greatest is following the 
advice of free-lover, libertines and low spirits, in refus- 
ing to disfellowship the persistently vicious, when it 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 409 

is a notorious fact that many mediums are practicing 
the most detestable trickery, deceit, fraud and false- 
hood. That leading teachers, noted mediums, and 
popular speakers, have deserted companions, obtained 
divorces, gone off with affinities, or practiced promiscu- 
ous intercourse^ to get spiritual elements, or to impart 
vital magnetism for the cure of diseases. Hundreds of 
families have been broken up, and many affectionate 
wives deserted by affinity seeking husbands ; many once 
devoted wives have been seduced and left their husbands 
and tender, helpless children, to follow some higher 
attraction ; many well disposed but simple-minded girls 
have been deluded by affinity notions, and led off by 
affinity hunters, to be deserted in a few months, with 
blasted reputations, or led to deeds still more dark and 
criminal to hide their shame." This parallels closely 
what is in this Bible, only in the Bible the conclusion 
was something like this: "Within the last few years 
the number of Spiritualists have greatly increased." 

Now what are we to make of this. I do not pretend 
to say, but this may be true. But my friends this is a 
great misrepresentation, because it only gives to the 
world the dark side of the picture. Suppose an inhabi- 
tant of another planet were to come here for the pur- 
pose of obtaining a description of this world's people, 
their character and disposition, in fine our conditions 
in every detail, for the purpose of enlightening the peo- 
ple of his home planet, and should refuse to note any- 
thing but the deeds of crime and all the immoral con- 
duct existing with us. Would that be fair to our world? 
Would he be honest to his trust, and would he be deal- 
ing fair with his own people. Would not both world's 



410 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

have reason to protest ? Well this parallels the situation 
between our world and the world of Spirit pretty 
closely, were the whole matter left entirely with our 
friends, the enemy, the Christian Church. Why is this 
so? Why would not the Christian Church have seized 
upon this opportunity of endorsing Spiritualism at its 
inception, thus putting their religion upon a sure 
foundation, where they could have furnished their poor 
hungry flock with palpable food, instead of expecting 
them to thrive and grow on intangible faith. The truth 
is the church was at first profoundly interested, but 
when it discovered that those they had preached in Hell 
could communicate back, and those they had preached 
in Heaven could communicate back, and in fact all 
could communicate back to friends in earth-life: they 
decided that this knowledge would be inimical to their 
plans and purposes of evangelizing the world, so they 
would put their feet upon it and stamp it out. 

But the plans of the Spirit world were laid ; the time 
was ripe for this revealment. Free America had been 
instituted ; the instruments of Inquisitorial torture had 
had their day. 

Spiritualism made its advent with its tiny raps which 
have echoed around the world, and all the power of 
Hell or the Orthodox Church cannot vanquish it, for 
it came with the intention of staying. 

The truth is dear friends when you undertake to 
belittle Spiritualism you only belittle yourselves. It is 
akin to closing your eyes and declaring that you have 
darkened the sunlight of heaven. This I speak from 
authority as I expect to prove. Now to show you that 
Spiritualism will not down, and to show the attitude of 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 411 

the Mother Church toward it, I quote a clipping from 
the Secular Press : 

CHAPTER III 

" 1908, Vatican Begins War on Spiritualism. Special 
Envoy. A Former Church of England Rector, Is To 
Conduct It Here. Special to the World. 

Washington, Dec. 91. 

J. Godfrey Raupert, former rector of the Anglican 
Church of the Octagon at Bath, Eng., has come to 
Washington, as special envoy of the Pope to combat 
the growth of Spiritualism in this country. " The posi- 
tion of the Catholic Church is this," he says, " It admits 
the reality of Spiritualistic phenomena, in fact, it has 
always admitted their reality. But the church denies 
that it has proven that these are human intelligences, 
and asserts that there are grave dangers, to faith, to 
morals, to health of mind and body connected with any 
attempt by the average man or woman to meddle in 
the matter. People are led away by the desire to obtain 
valuable information. Another danger to those who 
tamper with this subject is with regard to the effect 
on their mental health. It is certain that these phenom- 
ena are obtained by the cultivation of mental passivity 
and consequently there is danger of abrasion and per- 
manent derangement of mental faculties. It is well 
known although both spiritualists and scientific investi- 
gators are apt to attempt to hide this truth, that the 
greater number of mediums, degenerate and eventually 
become insane. — Lastly there is danger to faith that 
comes from this semi-mysterious subject. On the flimsy 



412 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

basis of their phenomena, the most that can be said 
for which is that they scientifically demonstrate the 
existence of a Spirit world, men have attempted to 
build up a system of theology with cheap tricks and 
travesties on miracles, this makes a powerful impression 
on the ignorant and partly informed, though there is 
no backing of intelligence and wisdom that compares 
with that of the average child." This is why the au- 
thorities at Rome are so anxious that Catholics should 
have the correct interpretation of this matter. Thou- 
sands are being swept off their feet by the reports of 
psychic powers current in newspapers and magazines. 
The attitude of Catholics must be absolutely negative. 
They must not experiment in any way with this 
unknown power. It is a real power, but at present it 
would seem at least to the theologian to be the power 
of the Demon for it denies Christ. I have spent con- 
siderable time endeavoring to give you an insight into 
the character of this hydra headed monster the Mother 
Church; and do not wish to take up the time farther; 
only to call attention to the decadence of her power. 
There was a time when think ye she would have spent 
her time in this weak way trying to vanquish a foe 
inimical to her ends and ambition? No, no, she would 
have instituted her " Inquisition " and all who did not 
promptly renounce their faith to an enemy like this, 
and swear fealty to the Mother Church and do penance 
by paying a goodly sum in coin of the realm, would 
have been proscribed against and tortured until life 
was extinct. 

Now a few words in regard to what is embodied in 
this mandate from the Pope. To combat the growth of 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 413 

Spiritualism. What does he know or care of Spiritual- 
ism, except that it antagonizes the Catholic Church. 

He acknowledges that it is a real power, and there- 
fore enjoins his benighted adherents to negative it in 
every possible way. Is this more than she has done 
with every faith or creed that has had birth since her 
creation ? Just consider what a concession is here made, 
when he acknowledges that Spiritualism is " a real 
power." Can he of truth make any such claim of his 
own old musty fossilized bloodstained religion, founded 
by brute force and perpetuated by falsehood, and 
whose hope of perpetuity is vested in keeping his laity 
in their primeval state of bigotry and ignorance. 

My friends the Old Roman Church is destined to fall, 
as well as all of its progeny which are founded upon 
error. Because it is the decree of destiny that error 
is to be overcome, in God's good time, by Demonstrated 
Truth. 

I would not say this, did I not feel certain that I have 
authority for making this declaration. 

If man survives the change called death, and is 
clothed with a spiritual body invisible to us in the mor- 
tal, how could it be possible for us to know that they 
still live unless there were some means of communication 
between the two worlds? This is vitally essential; 
because were it not for this, what would we have? 
Reason could not except the unreasonable doctrines of 
creeds founded on a man made book replete with unrea- 
sonable writings describing a savage and unreasonable 
God whose conduct is wholly unreasonable. That there 
is a way provided is what I now wish to explain. 

We all know that people pass this stage of life in 



414 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

all conceivable conditions ; from the stillborn infant to 
the centenarian, and those who have led good and con- 
sistent lives, to those who have been steeped in the dark- 
est conditions of vice and crime. So what would be the 
rational conclusion in regard to conditions on the Spirit 
side of life. It is evident to those who have made human 
nature a study that the worst types of humanity con- 
tain some good and the best some traces of evil, and to 
draw a definite line between the good and the bad is 
not an easy matter. Now what we learn from Spirit- 
ualism is that all classes have an equal opportunity of 
communicating back to those in earthlife. And the uni- 
versal law that like attracts like holds true in this case. 
Now a medium does not signify purity of heart, or that 
they may average any better than those not in posses- 
sion of this gift ; there may be among them those who 
are very immoral and to this class as a rule would be 
attracted a bad class of spirits. There may be many 
exceptions to this rule in both cases of moral and 
immoral mediums, but this as a rule from what I have 
learned is about the condition of things. So when a 
person gives to the public an opinion on Spiritualism 
the gamut has a wide range, from darkened souls 
inhabiting the lowest planes of spirit life: to the white 
robed angel who tells us of the beauties and joys of 
their world which transcends our power to comprehend. 

When I returned from Lily Dale I supposed my 
friends and acquaintances would be deeply interested 
in what I had to show them. But here I found I had 
another lesson to learn. 

I found there was a wider diversity of thought or 
opinion upon what I called proof of an all important 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 415 

thing to mankind, than I had anticipated. I found 
also that those who were willing to believe and seemed 
to in a weak way, preferred to keep their belief a secret 
owing to the unpopularity of Spiritualism. I found 
that popular opinion came nearer to making cowards 
of us all than does conscience. I found that long- 
established prejudices are not easily uprooted. In 
regard to my wife: She, during all of this time that 
I had been making Spiritualism a study, had regarded 
it as something bad, and better let alone. This, owing 
to her early training being strictly orthodox, and she 
seemed to think it extremely hazardous to change re- 
ligions. I thought there had been crusades enough in 
the past, and I would not disturb domestic tranquillity 
on account of my change of belief, and that she could 
believe as she pleased; she regarded the slates rather 
superstitiously, but could not help saying, How much 
that sounds like your father, it is exactly his expression 
when he was surprised. 

I had a deed in the house signed by my sister, I com- 
pared this to the name on the slates, they were as much 
alike as though she had signed her name twice while 
here. My wife seemed thoughtful, but said but little. 
I would occasionally give her something to read with- 
out asking an opinion ; things ran this way for several 
years, but it was evident to my mind that her hold on 
her Christian faith was giving way. One Sunday even- 
ing much to my surprise, she brought out a small stand 
and asked me to put my hands upon it with her, I had 
never thought of a home circle or of trying to get proof 
of spirit return at home, but of course, I sat with her 
at the stand and it was not more than half an hour 



416 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

before the stand began to move and would answer tc 
questions by raps; this interested us much, and the 
question was asked which of us were the most mediumis- 
tic? The reply came promptly that my wife was, and 
upon questioning, they told us we would soon get better 
communication than " raps." Well in process of time 
my wife developed automatic writing. About this time 
our daughter, Lorena, died having been sick but four 
days. She was never strong but was well as usual up to 
the time of this her last sickness. My wife was strongly 
attached to her, she was our only daughter and when 
she died it seemed that this blow was more than my wife 
could endure; but she then took hold of Spiritualism 
with renewed interest to see if our Lorena still 
lived. Within a few weeks from this time clairvoyant 
vision came to her and almost directly she became 
claraudiant, and she could then talk to our daughter, 
Rena. This was about four years ago, and we — my 
wife and I — have been conducting a small Psychical 
Research Society from that time to the present, and 
while we have not received the highest phases of man- 
ifestation, we have received proof all of these years that 
death is but a rebirth into a higher expression of life. 
Our daughter Rena has always met with us at our 
" seances " which have been held weekly, and has acted 
as interpreter for her mother with all who might meet 
with us from the Spirit world, for while my wife can 
talk to her as easily as with anyone in the mortal, she 
cannot usually talk with others, and it then has to be 
transmitted by her. When my wife's hand was first 
controlled to write, her spirit vision had not yet de- 
veloped, and the only way we could then tell who was 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 417 

controlling her, was by the name signed to the message 
among our first seances for writing. My father made 
himself known and expressed great surprise at my wife's 
becoming a Spiritualist for he remembered her as being 
so very pronounced at all times in her Orthodox faith. 
My father in life leaned heavily toward Universalism. 
I asked him if he had any idea what had wrought this 
change? He said he did not know, but he remembered 
giving " Sammy " a message, a slate one time, and he 
thought that might have something to do with it. I 
told him I thought he had made a very good guess. I 
then said pa since you speak of the slates you wrote on, 
can you tell us who wrote on the slates in red, and said, 
" I hope I am welcome even if uninvited," and signed 
E. H. Hotchkiss. He said, "Why did you not know 
who that was? Why, that was Eliphalet. He felt 
slighted because you did not call for him." Eliphalet 
Hotchkiss is an uncle of mine, a brother of my father 
who had been dead about three years, he died in his 
eighty-seventh year. My father was in his seventy-fifth 
year when he passed out. Of course I can give only a 
summary of these communications. What will interest 
the readers is that which goes to prove that our friends 
survive the change called death, so will relate a few 
incidents from memory. I do not wish to use names 
as most people on this side of life are sensitive in regard 
to this matter. So will say an acquaintance once sat 
with us by invitation. She was invited for the purpose 
of a test ; for while we both knew her well we knew noth- 
ing of her people only that her father was dead ; so we 
thought that whoever came by her request, that we 
could not know their names or anything of them, which 



418 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

could be ascribed to the "subconscious mind of the 
medium " as some claim. It was a Mrs. X. we will say, 
who sat with us; we requested "Rena" to find her 
father and have him come and talk to his daughter. 
After waiting some fifteen minutes, a man came, my 
wife said here comes a man and with him a little girl: 
my wife described the man, which Mrs. X. said was 
correct. I then asked him to give us his name in full 
which he did ; this Mrs. X. said was correct ; my wife 
then described the little girl who ran about the room but 
who seemed to be attracted to Mrs. X. My wife asked 
her to give us her name ; she said her name was " Fan- 
nie" and this woman was her sister. Mrs. X. seemed 
nervous and much excited from this, but said this was 
correct. She had lost a little sister, and this was her 
name, and after asking her father a few questions and 
receiving correct answers, she withdrew with the under- 
standing that she would meet with him the next Sun- 
day evening. He promised to be present ; well when the 
time arrived she had grown timid and thought as many 
do that it might be wrong, so she wished to be excused, 
and of course was. So my wife and I sat alone as 
usual. The man came at our next seance as per agree- 
ment, we told him the situation, that his daughter was 
afraid to sit with us; he expressed his regrets at the 
state the world was in and after a brief conversation I 
told him what I would like for a test, to have him give 
us his mother's first name, and his mother-in-law's first 
name. I took a pencil and wrote them down just as 
he gave them. The next day we asked Mrs. X. what 
her grandmother's name was on her father's side. She 
told us; which was correct. Then her grandmother's 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 419 

name on her mother's side; she told us, and this was 
also correct. Now let us wait a moment and give this 
a rational consideration. Suppose he had failed to 
have given these names from lack of memory, which 
we have found is many times the case. Sometimes it 
seems that the spirit's memory is so deficient that they 
must have suffered a great loss in making the change ; 
again, at other times, some seem to remember with a 
clearness equal to many of us in earth life. If this 
spirit had failed to give these names correctly, it would 
have been no proof against the claims of Spiritualism ; 
but when he gave them correct, I consider it conclusive 
proof. I do not see any possible explanation except 
upon the spiritual hypothesis. I hit upon this plan 
just there with no particular premeditation. He gave 
these names, we wrote them as he gave them, we asked 
Mrs. X. in a way that could not possibly lead her 
what the names of her grandmothers were, she told us, 
we looked at the names recorded, and they were as the 
spirit told. What was my object in getting this test? 
The great object was the satisfaction it gave us, for 
we had tried similar things to prove identity sometimes 
without success, and when we found this test correct, 
we thought it good to know and good to tell to others. 
"Rena," our daughter, understood the situation from 
her first inception into spirit-life, and has taken great 
pains to prove her identity to us, and has to our en- 
tire satisfaction, for many, many times. She has many 
times told us of things that happened in her childhood 
and subsequent years which we had fairly forgotten till 
she brought them to mind. She was in her twenty- 
first year when she passed over. She has told us many 



420 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

times that we must have no doubt about the reality 
of a continued life, and that it is a great improvement 
upon life on the earth-plane. We have questioned our 
friends much in regard to their homes, their surround- 
ings, and how they get their clothing, for they always 
come well appareled; our daughter has come to us 
attired in many styles of dress, with as many different 
varieties of fabric. Here is a summary of what they 
tell us in regard to this: That their houses are cre- 
ated by will power, the same as on earth, only the ma- 
terial in the spirit world is sublimated matter and is 
wrought into temples and houses by the power of the 
will by spirit chemists ; that their houses and edifices 
are furnished and embellished similar to ours on earth, 
only many times they are grander than we can have a 
conception of ; that their clothing and all things needed 
in cloth, in fact, all we have and many things we do 
not have, are produced in the same way by those who 
understand. So you see from what they tell us they 
live veritably in houses not made with hands. 

One time we asked " Rena " if she could not give us 
a description of her home. She said she could not do 
that very well; it was beautiful, and she would bring 
some pictures which might give us some idea of it ; the 
next time she came she brought some large pictures 
which, with some help, she placed upon a holder, all 
screened at first; after a short visit she said, "Now I 
will try and give you some idea of our home." She 
then removed the screen and the grounds and surround- 
ings were first exhibited. My wife said the grounds 
were beautifully laid out with ornamental shrubs and 
trees. Of course I could see nothing, but I was satis- 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 421 

fied my wife did from her exclamations. First, the 
grounds, then the side and front elevations; then a 
number of interior views. My wife said they were 
beautiful indeed. Rena says her home is with her 
grandparents at present. This may provoke merri- 
ment with many, and such may say, as has many times 
been said, that these are but the vagaries of a dis- 
eased mind or the hallucinations of a moon-struck 
imagination. 

Now let us take a little time and consider just where 
this type of insanity has its starting-point. We all 
have a desire to live while we are in health and the 
world goes well with us. We desire to live if things 
don't go just to suit us in every detail. We all look 
upon death as a calamity when in the prime of life, 
and there seems to be much that we should live for; 
in fine, death is never a welcome guest unless disease or 
adversity has bereft us of every hope. Then, here we 
all agree: that we desire to live. Here, again, we 
agree: we know that at the longest, whether the world 
goes well or ill, we make our exit from this life in a 
brief space of time, with all of its joys and sorrows. 
To this we all agree. Then let us see if we cannot 
agree a few steps farther; we all desire a future life; 
each and every individual would be glad of a future life 
if he could be assured that with it would be happiness. 
Now there are no exceptions between us up to this 
point. Then suppose a friend tells you that he has 
had proof that there can be held intercourse with the 
denizens of the spirit world; that you are not obliged 
to take his word alone for it, but that they are yet 
alive and can be heard from, and if you will turn 



422 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

aside with him for a few steps you can get proof that 
this is true. It would look like downright bigotry un- 
less there were some adequate reason why you could 
not, to refuse to follow a friend to witness what he 
thought a proof of as important a thing as this, 
would it not? Your reply is, It certainly would. You 
follow this friend and witness an independent slate- 
writing; you critically examine the conditions under 
which it is done, and you are certain that fraud was 
precluded; you could hear the writing, and names were 
signed by those whom you knew in this life and know 
of their demise; you witness this and you are aston- 
ished. 

Then suppose this same friend tells you that by 
going ten rods farther with him you can see certain 
of your friends who have lived and died, yet still they 
can appear in a temporary form for a short time and 
can talk to you. You would, any of you, go ten rods 
to see so wonderful a thing as this, would you not? I 
certainly would, and so you all say ; then we are still at 
unity, and none of us moon-struck as we can discover 
yet. Suppose, then, you go with him, and a friend 
that you knew well in earth-life appeared to you in a 
temporary materialized body and tells you things that 
proves his identity to a degree that is unmistakable 
to you. You can clearly recognize the form and fea- 
tures, that he is tangible to the sense of touch and 
sight; he is clothed with apparel similar to ours, and 
he tells you that he has a permanent existence in the 
realm of spirit that is as solid and substantial to him 
as this world is to us ; and after telling you all of this 
and much more, you then see the form dematerialize, 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 42S 

or become invisible. Now, after witnessing all of this, 
would it be fair to call you moon-struck if you were 
to believe, from this evidence, after seeing it repeated 
and all chance for fraud eliminated, that we survive 
the change called death, and that through " Mediums " 
there can be communion held between this world and 
the world of spirits? 

These phenomena here described of course we do not 
expect you will all find so close at hand, but that they 
do occur, thousands can testify, and whether you go 
ten rods or a thousand miles- could make no difference 
with the facts; nor could going a long distance make 
any difference with the question of being " moon- 
struck." Christians by the million go from all parts 
of the world to the " Holy Land " to see where Christ 
"walked on the water." Are they "moon-struck"? 



CHAPTER IV 

Some charges against "Modern Spiritualism" by 
our friends "the enemy": First, the great charge is, 
that we do not believe in God the Father or in Jesus 
Christ his only begotten Son, and salvation by blood 
atonement. I have discussed this question all I care to. 
As the mind of man expands by knowledge, his concep- 
tions of God must proportionately expand, and we do 
not deem it wise to bestow faith and worship upon this 
Triune Deity which is mathematically an " ad ab- 
surdum," when to this is added a thousand and one 
things that Reason must reject and Truth cannot 
accept. We do not deny — we believe in — the existence 



4U PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

of a Supreme Infinite Intelligence or Oversoul, of which 
we and all expressions of life are a part. But the God 
of the Jews' Bible, and his Son of the Christians', is too 
circumscribed and the record is too bad for Spirit- 
ualism to accept, only in the particulars that have 
been pointed out. If we hold communion with the 
spirit world, is it not encumbent upon us to believe 
what they tell us, especially when they tell us that 
which accords to the best conceptions of human reason 
and justice? 

Have Spiritualists a creed? I will copy some from 
a book, " The Religious Denominations of the World," 
which, in the main, according to what our " arisen " 
friends tell us, is correct, although the book bears the 
date 1870; so you see our young religion was much 
younger then than now. Truth does not change, but 
our knowledge and conceptions of truth may broaden 
according to the law of progress and unfoldment, and 
there has been much learned since this which I copy 
was indited: " Spiritualism is a form of religion 
which existed from antiquity (carefully note this), but 
as a sect Spiritualists are the youngest of the existing 
denominations. The first representatives of it resided 
in Rochester, New York, who, about the year 1848, 
began to attract the attention of the public by declar- 
ing that they held communications with departed spirits 
by means of rapping on tables, knocking on the walls, 
and other mysterious and unaccountable noises. 

"So remarkable a phenomenon at once excited gen- 
eral attention, and several parties were formed in ref- 
erence to the subject, some asserting the genuineness 
of the matter, others contending that the whole was an 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 425 

imposture, and that no communication had taken place 
or possibly could take place between the living and the 
dead. Notwithstanding the opposition which was ar- 
rayed against Spiritualism, facts continued to accumu- 
late, and experiments were made which seemed to stag- 
ger the belief of the most incredulous, and made it very 
difficult for those who condemned Spiritualism as an 
imposition to account for them. 

" The great principle of Spiritualism is, that the 
spirits of the departed, who are no longer ' in the form,' 
can and do hold intelligent and sensible intercourse 
with those still living; and that they accomplish this 
result in various ways, by raps on tables, by messages, 
by moving material objects about, by prophecies, by 
writing and speaking unknown tongues, by spiritual 
shocks and touches of the person, by spiritual melodies, 
and by the visible appearance of spirits to the living. 

" Within the last sixteen years thousands of persons 
have been thus used as mediums of communication with 
the spirits of the departed. Some are made to see and 
describe spirits, others are controlled to write out com- 
munications, often giving test facts unknown to the 
medium, and sometimes written in phonography, Greek, 
Latin, or some language not understood by anyone 
present. In the presence of some mediums tables, 
chairs, and other articles are moved, and sometimes 
raised and carried about the room, by some invisible 
means. Bells are rung, drums are beaten, horns blown, 
guitars, dulcimers, banjos, tambourines, violins, accor- 
deons and pianos are played upon by invisible oper- 
ators. Impressional and inspirational mediums have 
had positive demonstrations of spirit influence; and 



426 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

hundreds of thousands have had tests which have fully 
convinced them of the possibility of communicating 
with departed friends and relatives. 

"The majority of Spiritualists contend that these 
manifestations are not confined to the present or re- 
cent times, but that they have existed in all ages, 
though their real nature was unsuspected and un- 
known. Of this kind, they contend, were the revela- 
tions of God to Moses on Mount Sinai, those made to 
Isaiah and the other Hebrew prophets, the appearance 
of angels at the sepulchre of Christ, and various other 
events in the Scriptures. 

"The instruments by means of which communica- 
tions are alleged to take place between spirits and the 
living are called media. These media are of various 
kinds — writing media, who write while in a state of 
trance, and whose hands are entirely under control by 
the spirits ; speaking media, who, while in a state of 
trance, speak while under the influence of spirits; 
seeing media, whose development is so high and per- 
fect that they can see spirits with their physical sight ; 
discerning media, who, by placing a sealed letter on 
top of their heads, or on the palms of their hands, can 
read the contents; normal media, who speak in a nat- 
ural state, but are under the influence of a temporary 
inspiration. Some media are public, others are private ; 
and media of both kinds possess different degrees of 
excellence and power. 

"Spiritualists also contend that spirits are them- 
selves possessed of different degrees of capability to 
communicate with those in * the mortal ' or who are 
still alive and in the body. Before a spirit can read, 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 42? 

or communicate through the alphabet, it must possess 
the necessary acquaintance with letters. A spirit 
which left the body without being able to read, and 
without any acquaintance with science, cannot make 
communications which involve scientific knowledge. 

" It is also alleged that the medium through which 
spirits communicate is a certain fluid in the atmosphere 
which is more subtle than ether; hence the state of the 
weather has an important bearing on their communi- 
cations. In damp, rainy or dreary weather, when the 
atmosphere is heavy, they are restricted in their opera- 
tions, because of the deficiency of this mysterious fluid. 
By the use of these means, Spiritualists have arrived 
at the adoption of the following doctrinal opinions, 
which they regard as their system of belief: 

" They believe in the existence of a Supreme Being. 
Thy believe that all the spirits who now exist in the 
* spirit world ' once existed in connection with a physi- 
cal body. That the spirit world is composed of a 
great number of spheres, each one of which is divided 
and subdivided into a number of minor spheres, whose 
variety is equal to the variety of individuals which 
exist among men on earth. That the first sphere into 
which the spirit passes when it leaves the body is in 
many respects the counterpart of their condition here, 
and advanced but a single degree beyond their charac- 
ter and condition here. That the spirits of higher 
spheres can read the thoughts of all those spirits which 
belong to lower spheres. That the spirit of man is 
immortal ; and that the nature of the sphere into which 
a man enters in the other world depends upon his char- 
acter when he dies. If his character and feelings are 



428 PROGRESSIVE AGE, OF REASON 

base, he will enter into a base sphere. That for every 
injury inflicted on others, the spirit shall be punished 
by the suffering of mental tortures proportioned to 
the degree of his crime. 

" Spiritualists also hold that the natural tendency 
of spirits in the future world is one of constant pro- 
gression from lower to higher spheres, and that every 
man's moral status at death is the starting point from 
which he enters the future state. 

"As to infants, they think that, on entering the 
world of spirits, they are taken in charge by devel- 
oped matrons, who educate them, and gradually intro- 
duce them into higher circles, and continue their care 
until they become adults. This is done unless in the 
meantime the mother of the child arrives in the spirit 
world; in which case, if she be fit to enter the same 
sphere, the child will be entrusted to her custody; if 
not, it will be retained in the care of those who are 
more fit for the responsibility." 

Although this was written nearly forty years ago — 
and, I should judge, that the compiler was not a be- 
liever, or at most that he only held this new religion 
tentatively — yet the doctrines or teaching are virtually 
the same as our " arisen friends " tell us to-day. Is 
this an invented creed by incarnate man, with a view 
of building up a new religion to compete with the other 
religions of the world; to butt in and establish a new 
priesthood, and proselyte the world for followers, and 
finally reap a golden harvest? If this were so, this 
new religion called Spiritualism is conspicuous as a 
failure. 

My dear frie* ds, what interest could I have in at- 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 429 

tempting this task of giving this book to the world 
if I did not feel 'twere true? I am at work on the 
wrong side of this proposition to gain notoriety; also 
the wrong side if it were a question of revenue with me. 
If it were revenue, it is my belief that a book written 
in ridicule of Spiritualism, and to hold the whole thing 
in derision with some glowing accounts of fraud ex- 
posures, there would be ten such books sold to one giv- 
ing an impartial account of the facts of the " seance 
room " and what is told us purporting to come from 
those who have crossed the " great divide." Are we 
deceived? If we are, who is doing it? Is it the 
"Devil" that is producing all of this phenomena 
called spiritual, and telling us all of these things about 
a fictitious spirit world, that he can hiss in our faces 
after he has gotten us permanently landed in hell? 
Is this Devil a greater power than the power called 
God? You all say emphatically, " No." Then how 
could all of this tremendous evil be rationally ascribed 
to any other than God himself, if he permits this " evil 
power" to work such devastation as this, and, when 
everlastingly too late, inform us that this is a part 
of his great plan? What a travesty upon Reason! 

Who would wish that Spiritualism were not true? 
What can there be objectionable about it? The only 
thing that I can see is that it threatens the old estab- 
lished religions ; and this, of course, the theologian does 
not wish ; but why? Because he does not want his long 
established occupation disturbed. I admit, some might 
suffer temporarily by such a change, but is this any 
reason? I should say not. There were some who 
thought they were made to suffer by the abolition of 



430 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

slavery in our land, but was that a reason for its con- 
tinuation? I should say not. I have never yet known 
or heard of an intelligent person who set himself to 
investigating Spiritualism impartially for the purpose 
of determining the truth, who has ever declared against 
it ; there may be such cases, but I have never heard of 
one. 

Who are they that declare against it? Invariably 
those who know nothing of it, or those whose worldly 
interests, from their viewpoint, admonish them against 
it. Should things like this block the wheels of prog- 
ress, and when earth's hungry children ask for bread 
shall we give them a stone? 

The theologian says, Read your Bible and keep your 
eyes upon the Cross of Christ. This is a hard propo- 
sition, because there is so much contradiction to it, 
which I have pointed out in Part I, that to believe 
one part makes you disbelieve some other — and there 
you are. But you will remember I told you there were 
priceless gems in the Old Book, because they with- 
stand the wear and tear of time and prove that what 
we call Modern Spiritualism was modern in the time 
of Paul, and in the day of the woman of En-dor, and 
so on back till time is lost in antiquity. Now, when 
Paul says, "Be not deceived; God is not mocked, for 
whatsoever a man soweth that shall he reap." Here 
St. Paul strikes the keynote of Spiritualism which 
thunders down the ages. This will withstand the rav- 
ages of bigotry and superstition. This parallels this 
quotation from the religions of the world, and also 
parallels what our Arisen Friends in modern time have 
reiterated for sixty-one years, from all parts of the 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 431 

civilized world. Then, again, where he speaks, " Con- 
cerning Spiritual gifts" (mediumship), he parallels 
Spiritualism again so unmistakably that " the wayfar- 
ing man though not very highly educated need not 
err therein." But what makes this hard on the theo- 
logian, it cuts the ground right from under the feet 
of " Blood Atonement." 

Another charge against Spiritualism is that the only 
means by which the spirit world can be reached is 
through this class called " mediums." These claim 
they will have none of it, unless their friends from the 
other world can communicate to them direct, and tell 
them the things they would like to know. Of course, 
if things had been arranged this way, the Bible as it 
stands would be void, and all the different creeds 
founded thereon, and all of the various opinions ar- 
rayed against them; all of the sanguinary strife that 
has crimsoned the world with blood; all persecutions 
and inquisitions ; in fine, the whole black record, would 
not need have been enacted or need have been recorded. 

If all in the past ages who have crossed death's 
river had still been visible to mortal eye and free to 
exchange thought and show to those in the flesh the 
baneful consequences of wrongdoing, and the advan- 
tage gained by good conduct, it certainly looks to the 
finite mind that, had this been so from the beginning, 
a vast amount of suffering would have been avoided. 
But this charge applies, in every respect, as well to 
the Christian as to the Spiritualist, and even more, 
because failure to believe with the Christian is fraught 
with more serious consequences than with the Spirit- 
ualist. What a sea of speculation this carried out in 



432 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

all its details would finally lead to! We could make 
it appear as well that the Infinite had gone wrong in 
every department of his work. This world of ours is 
a hard proposition, such might contend, to wrestle 
with for an existence and could be greatly improved 
dd infinitum; finally, God has shown himself incapable 
in every particular, and creation is a failure. 

My friends, we must take this world just as it is; 
this is all the world that has been given us ; we must 
accept it with the conditions as they are. The achieve- 
ments of man have been great, but he has had to back 
up and change his plans a great many times before 
he has brought his work to final success ; and what we 
have lost by not knowing certain things ages before 
cannot enter into this question. We must try all 
things and hold fast to that which is good. This ob- 
jection to Spiritualism is a flimsy one, and if all were 
of this class it would still be barred; but, thanks to 
the great and Divine plan, mankind is not all of this 
class. But to this class I would say: That while 
you may not be able to have your spirit friends just 
as visible and tangible as you may desire at all times, 
yet in almost every family there will be one or more 
that by sitting for development can get some phase of 
manifestation which will lead you, if patient and per- 
severing, into a knowledge of this great truth. 

I remember reading from the pen of a prominent 
Spiritualist and medium that he had lent assistance 
to many for developing mediumship, and had never met 
with but one who did not have some degree of this 
power lying latent. The charge against Spiritualism 
as being of Satan is too flimsy to take up farther 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 433 

time. Here is a thing I wish to speak of in this con- 
nection: I once read from the pen of one who claims 
to be a Spiritualist, and while admitting the truth of 
the claims that we could commune with those called 
dead, yet it was wrong, and very wrong, to do it, for 
this reason: that it retards the progress of those we 
call back to earth, and in this way do them great harm 
by keeping them fettered to earthly conditions. I 
thought this irrational, and noted it to ask our friends 
if this were true. Their reply in substance was this : 
"If a child ask you a question, would it retard your 
progress to give an answer? If our time were all 
taken up with our earth-friends there might be some 
truth in this, but, as it is, 'tis only recreation and a 
pleasure to return for a short visit with friends on 
earth to let them know that we still live." 

Some also claim that Spiritualists are prying into 
that that God never intended they should, and a great 
sin is being committed against the Almighty thereby. 
This is the same old thing for which Bruno was burned 
to the stake, for advocating the rotundity of the earth 
and its revolution upon its axis. And ministers of the 
Gospel can and do give interesting lectures upon as- 
tronomy; and no doubt, in the future, matters will be 
adjusted so they will be demonstrating a future life 
based upon the facts of Modern Spiritualism. But at 
present, " Great is Diana of the Ephesians." God, 
dear reader, has made our world fireproof and does 
not care how much his children play with the match- 
box. 

What are we justified in believing? Doubt breeds 
doubt. Belief breeds belief. Had the two religions, 



434 PROGRESSIVE AGE, OF REASON 

Spiritualism and, we will say, the Roman Church — ' 
this is the oldest and has the largest following — could 
it have been that these both came to us at the same 
time, say, at the time of the advent of Modern Spir- 
itualism — this church with its Bible and its plea for 
faith, Spiritualism with its proof and teachings — 
which, think you, would win out, both placed upon 
their merits? The Roman religion would soon sink 
into "innocuous desuetude" and Spiritualism would 
spread abroad in the land. Why? Because the for- 
mer could not appeal to reason, the latter would. The 
former could not offer one syllable of proof, only faith, 
and this founded upon the flimsy pretense of revela- 
tion, and this wholly irrational. The latter does not 
ask you to believe one claim that cannot be demon- 
strated or proved. 

Were Spiritualism universally understood and be- 
lieved throughout the civilized world, would mankind 
be injured thereby? Would business become stagnated 
and enterprise lose its fascination? Would our alms- 
houses become overcrowded, and would we need to mul- 
tiply our State prisons and our machinery for execut- 
ing the death penalty? 

Would there need be less brain employed in exploit- 
ing the natural resources of the world or for inter- 
national improvement? I tell you, No. But the ani- 
mal propensity in man to grasp and hold, to corner 
markets, and to monopolize the necessities of life by 
fixing prices and manipulating finances so that he may 
boast his hundreds of millions, while thousands are suf- 
fering thereby — this kind of occupation, I claim, would 
lose its charm. And why ? Because our " arisen 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 4S5 

friends " would tell them this kind of life was not 
conducive to happiness in the next world; that it is 
but the carrying out of the baser passions of their 
nature, and their better natures are blighted and 
dwarfed thereby, and the faculties that have been cul- 
tivated in this brief, uncertain span of life can be of 
no value in the next, so you arrive in the next world 
with but one faculty developed, " greed " ; and this is 
of no value, and your better nature is stultified and 
dwarfed, and you will have to expiate the consequences 
of a misspent life. 

The teachings of Spiritualism may tend toward 
"Socialism." With me the great bar to socialism is 
the disposition of so great a proportion of our popu- 
lation to besottedness, to settling themselves as bar- 
nacles upon honest labor for support and spending 
their time in saloons and places of bad repute, with 
this for their " creed": "The world owes me a liv- 
ing." The world owes you nothing unless you have 
earned it. But were true wisdom injected into our 
social fabric, which, I believe, is embodied in the teach- 
ings of Modern Spiritualism, this thing called socialism 
would in time take its place incidentally, with no par- 
ticular disruption to our social or civic institutions. 

My argument is closed ; there are volumes that might 
be said, but I must forbear. 

The remainder of my work will now be that of 
placing before you such things as I have read or 
heard that have been of deep interest to me, and there- 
fore premise they may interest you, reserving the priv- 
ilege of a casual comment. 

These selections will be given promiscuously. I will 



436 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

aim to give you selections embracing the various 
phases of spirit manifestation. 



CHAPTER V 

Mother's First Experience 

Burnham, N. Y., Jan. 7, 1909. 

Editor Sunflower: The following poem was given 
me by my mother, Hannah Morse, who passed out 
Dec. 4, 1907, after an illness of about four weeks. 
Up to the time of her last illness, she was, and always 
had been, a most radical aggressive orthodox, and it 
was a matter of disputation between us, often extend- 
ing into unpleasantness, I being a Spiritualist. 

However, she sent for me when she was taken sick 
and requested me to remain until the last, as she 
" knew she was going to die." A few days after I had 
been there the "Ladies' Aid," headed by the minister's 
wife, called en masse, after their hours of session, to 
condole, sympathize and pray for her, announcing that 
the minister would be there soon to assist in prayer. 
My mother greeted them with "fierce" cordiality — if 
you know what that means — and refused both them 
and the minister the privilege, saying she was as well 
prepared to go as they or the minister, and, further- 
more, she did not wish him to speak over her dead 
body; that "Mrs. Clara Watson was going to per- 
form that act." Everyone was astounded, no one 
more so than I. The ladies of the Aid brought their 
visit to an abrupt close, each one remembering some 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 437 

home duty that must be performed, took their de- 
parture and never called again. 

After they had gone, my mother told me : " Strange 
things have been happening to me all the fall. My 
mother — your grandmother — came to me often, was 
with me at times every day, 6 doing something ' over 
my head. Her first coming was several weeks ago. I 
was lying down with my little shawl over my head and 
face. I was nearly asleep when I heard soft, gentle 
footsteps coming into the room. I felt the presence 
of someone close beside me, and the shawl raised from 
off my face. I opened my eyes, but the shawl had not 
been removed. I raised up, and there stood your 
grandmother. We had a long talk and she told me I 
was coming to her soon. I have seen the girls and 
Eddie" (meaning my two sisters and brother, who 
passed out several years ago). "They come to me 
often now, so do many of my old schoolmates, and 
one day my teacher came, bringing me an apple from 
the old tree that stood in the schoolhouse yard. It 
tasted good, too — a great large red one. We don't 
have any like it now. I haven't seen your father yet, 
but he will come, they tell me." 

My mother talked with me after that fearlessly and 
frankly about her going, making little gifts here and 
there, charging me over and over again to be kind to 
my poor epileptic brother, whom she was leaving be- 
hind. She wanted to hold my hand constantly when 
I was in her room. 

In the afternoon of Dec. 3, about five o'clock, she 
looked up and suddenly exclaimed : " The girls are 
here again, and here comes Asa" (meaning my father). 



438 PROGRESSIVE AGE; OF REASON 

Such a happy, pleased expression came over her face, 
she fell into a quietude of thought and was silent for 
some time. At last I spoke, saying, "It is time for 
your medicine." She looked up and replied, "May, 
it is of no use, but I will take it, if you want me to. 
It will do no good." Those were her last words. She 
closed her eyes and slept until four o'clock the next 
morning, when her spirit left her body. 

She has long since promised to write me her experi- 
ence upon her first going over. I got it the other day, 
and am more pleased with it than anything else I 
ever got through my hand. Dr. Henderson, of Lily 
Dale, treated her in her last illness, and all the home 
people of Lily Dale are familiar with the occurrence — 
her antagonism to Spiritualism, and the " change of 
heart" in her last hours. She had a Spiritualist fu- 
neral, or "christening" into the higher life. Mrs. 
Clara Watson, of Jamestown, N. Y., spoke over the 
remains. Mrs. Maggie Wildrick sang "Face to 
Face," and Mrs. Grace Champlin played the piano. 
Both the latter ladies are from Lily Dale. 

(Signed) Mrs. Thomas Burke. 

the POEM 

Passed I into sleep unconscious 

Of all sorrow, grief and pain — 
Sensing nothing, feeling nothing, 

Till I oped my eyes again 

On a fairer world and brighter, 

Filled with beauties never guessed — 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 439 

Rippling streams, whose gentle murmurs 
Lulled my spirit into rest. 

Undulating waves of music 

Floated on the perfumed air; 
Vaguely I began to wonder, 

Where am I? Oh, where; oh, where? 

Memory then began her weaving 

Like a tireless busy loom, 
And I listened for your footsteps, 

As you passed from room to room. 

But the sound of rippling waters 

And the song of unseen birds — 
Mingling with some far-off music — 

Was the only sound I heard. 

Nearer on it came, and nearer, 

Till it reached a loud acclaim — 
Ponderous, joyful notes of gladness, 

Beating out our loved one's name. 

Then a feeling — that I name not — 

O'er my weakened senses crept, 
Filling me with sweet contentment, 

Like a weary child I slept. 

When I woke 'twas on a vision 

That I gazed, so fair, so mild, 
That I scarce was sure I knew her — 

Your dear sister, my dear child, 



440 PROGRESSIVE AGE, OF REASON 

That had left us in the blossom 
Of her budding motherhood, 

Years ago; and smiling sweetly 
There before me Hattie stood. 

Oh ! the bliss of that one moment ! 

Oh! the joy; for well I knew 
That death's dark and dreaded river, 

Somehow, I had forded through, 

All unconscious of the passage 
As I crossed the dark abyss, 

As I journeyed down the valley 
Whose drear shadows lead to bliss. 

Then from out the flowers and foliage 
Other spirits seemed to glide — 

Your father, brother, sister Eva — 
All were standing by my side. 

I was weak, so weak, but happy, 
And I tried to speak — in vain — ' 

Tears of love and joy were falling 
,From my eyes like summer rain. 

Your father took and placed me gently 

In a soft-reclining chair, 
And I gazed around in rapture — i 
1 Flowers, flowers everywhere. 

Loving hands caressed me fondly, 
Loving lips were pressed to mine 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OP REASON 441 

Loving eyes were shining brightly 
With a happiness divine. 

And they told me of the wondrous 

Working of your angel band — 
How they reached my understanding 

By my holding of your hand. 

Then my mind went back to earth-life, 

And I longed for you to know 
That I was supremely happy, 

That my soul was all aglow. 

With a love so pure, so holy — 

Not a grief, and not one pain — 
Only in my heart a longing 

To come back to you again, 

Just to tell you I was happy, 

That you must not grieve and mourn, 

I was free from earth-life's shackles 
Which I had so lately worn ; 

And that you must bear up bravely 

With the burden I had cast 
As a heritage of sorrow 

In your generous heart at last. 

But I could not come for weakness, 

Helpless as a child newborn ; 
And they told me I must foster 

All my strength for Christening morn. 



442 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

Yes, I came, and saw the wrinkled 
Face of mine, all cedar-crowned, 
Saw you place the red carnation 
t On my breast, your eyes tear-drowned. 

Saw the old form dressed in satin, 

White it was, all trimmed in lace, 
1 Heard the music, and the singing, 
."We shall meet — yes — face to face." 

Heard the message that was spoken 
O'er my form, so cold and still — 

Death is life, and change's progression; 
Love is law, and nature's will. 

Then they took me back to heaven, 
Tended me with kindest care ; 

I learned the law of love and labor, 
Joining with the workers there, 

That I might come back to earth-life, 
When I found an open door, 

Bringing messages of kindness, 

Teaching much — and learning more ; 

For the law of love and labor 

Is unselfish deeds of love, 
Which react upon the giver, 

Bringing blessings from above. 

I am with you very often, 

Watching o'er you night and day, 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 443 

Giving you divine ambition, 
Hearing every word you say. 

So, have patience, child, and kindness, 

Being faithful to your trust. 
It will strengthen and protect you 

When you die, as die you must. 

I am passing through the stages, 

As the law of love demands, 
Going onward, ever upward, 

Toiling with both heart and hands. 

Soon I'll reach the fair Arcadia 
Where the brightest angels dwell — 

Where my heart, with love's pure essence, 
Echoes back my soul's "All's well." 

And I'll meet you in the morning 

Of the dawn of life's pure day, 
On the shore of life's supernal, 

When the mists have rolled away. 

— Through the hand of Mrs. Thomas Burke, Burn- 
ham, N. Y. (Signed "Ma.") 

You admit this poem is beautiful, but you say you 
don't believe anything in the source from which it is 
purported to have come. This is nothing new; thou- 
sands have made similar denunciations, but have 
changed their minds. 

As one has expressed it, " Many have went to scoff, 



444 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 



but have remained to pray." Our decarnate friends 
tell us, "That pursuits we have had a passion for in 
this life, but have been denied by adverse circumstances 
while here, we are free take up there and are furnished 
with Instructors, and all the necessary spirit material 
and implements, with beautiful temples for instruction, 
where you may commence at the A B C of your desired 
pursuit, and may pass from grade to grade, until you 
have reached a stage of attainment not dreamed of by 
mortals." Is not this "a consummation devoutly to 
be wished" by the poor drudge who daily plods the 
treadmill of care, with no hope of rest but the grave? 
They also tell us we are free to follow scientific pur- 
suits or continue them that we may have been engaged 
in while here — with opportunities broadened and better 
means at hand for prosecuting said pursuits. That art 
and literature may be still pursued by those who had a 
taste in that direction while here, and so on, and on. 

-Here is a thing that carried proof to my mind of 
this, the time I was at Lily Dale. I met a lady me- 
dium by the name of Mina Seymour, who said she was 
" en rapport " with Robert Burns, and he had trans- 
mitted to her from time to time poetry sufficient for a 
volume of 320 pages in Scotch. This interested me, 
and I asked her many questions. I asked her if she 
had a taste for poetry and wrote any before becoming 
acquainted with Mr. Burns. She said, No, no thought 
of it whatever; she allowed she liked poetry very well, 
but no taste whatever for Scotch poetry. She told me 
about her clairvoyant vision and of her being clarau- 
diant — things I did not then know much about. I asked 
her how he transmitted his poetry to her. She said 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 445 

sometimes in writing which appeared to her clairvoyant 
vision, or claraudiantly, and she wrote it as he gave it. 
I found her very interesting and bought one of her 
books. She called my attention to a certain thing 
within the book that I wish to call your attention to. 
It is in answer to the stereotyped cry of " fraud " and 
" I don't believe it." 

Robert thought he would do the best he could to 
exonerate his dear medium from this charge, and told 
her in a short poem to go to Pierre Keeler's, and he 
would give her a message in Scotch poetry on sealed 
slates, which appears in her book, lithographed with a 
sprig of forget-me-nots. 

I will give you this invitation desiring her to go to 
Keeler. Also what appeared on the slates. This con- 
versation took place directly after my engagement with 
Keeler, which lent additional proof to the claims of 
Spiritualism. 

To My Lady 

To Keeler's gae, i' the mornin', 

Your request I quick will grant ; 
The evidence asked for, 

Ye never mair will want. 
A message on the slates ye'll get, 

Scotch rhymes Rob Burns will gie; 
A wee bit braw, love letter, 

Lady, ye'll get frae me. 

Min' na the clishmaclaver 

Or the doubting skeptic, nae, 
I'll tak' ye to dear auld Scotland, 

To my kintra ye will gae. 



446 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

We'll leave the sullen dames ahint, 

They'll dit their mouths, they will ; 
I'll sen their way a lyddite shell, 

The hizzies will get their fill. 

(Slate-writing by P. L. O. A. Keeler.) 

I'll wi' thee be, while the dew 

In siller bells hings on the tree 
Or while the burmins waves o' blue 

Run wimplin' to the uroin sea; 
I'll wi' thee be while the gawin mild 

Its crimson fringe spreads on the lea ; 
While blooms the heather in the wild, 

Oh, I will ever wi' thee be ! 

I'll guide thee while the lintel sings 

His songs o' love on whinny brae; 
I'll guide thee while the crystal springs 

Glint in the gow'den gleams o' day; 
I'll guide thee while there's light above, 

And stars to stud the breast o' sky ; 
I'll guide thee till life's day is done, 

And bless thee when thee comes on high. 

Robert Burns. 

It will be remembered that Robert Burns in his day 
was no favorite with the dispensers of the Gospel ; and 
and he was regarded by them as a lost soul because of 
his radical views, which were reflected in his poetry. He 
has been on the other side now over a hundred years, 
and has not been converted to the Christian religion 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 447 

yet, from the tone of his spirit poetry. I will give in 
part a supramundane production of his, entitled 

Father Sniffle's Confession 

O Lord ! here in thy holy church, 

With prayer I come to thee ; 
Father, Son and Holy Ghost, 

Three in one, and one in three. 
Almighty is thy power, O God! 

Thy penetrating eye dost see, 
And know, my soul with grief is sore 

From sin. God! set me free! 
Ghaist — 'Tis true, in this confessional, 

man, ye've often been afore. 

When my weak soul was wrecked with pain 

And I a coward shook with fear; 
With secrets dark, I dare not tell 

E'en then, I felt your presence near, 
The dark-winged messenger of sin. 

Temptation — through it we fall ; 
The wily snake that smiled on Eve, 

O God you viewed it all. 
Ghaist — is there no surcease from hypocrisy 

Your sins — man are nae small. 

Temptation does me oft beguile, 

She sets her cunning snare; 
With bewitching Circe-like smile 

Her traps are everywhere. 
Tho' priest I am, of woman born 

Her weak points I inherit, 



448 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

My reputation is good, O God 

(But you know what I merit) 
Ghaist — >and be it this or be it that 

The crown of thorns, ye'll wear it. 

On thee, Lord ! I loudly call, 

Save me from sin's fell snare, 
Sin and Temptation, twins from Hell! 

I meet them everywhere. 

God! in this confessional, 
I humbly bend the knee; 

1 consecrate my life, God! 
Consecrate it to thee. 

Ghaist — O Father, Son (I am the ghaist) — 
A holy trinity. 

Holy Mother! Mary, virgin, 

The cross I make to thee; 
In meekness, Holy Mother, 

I humbly bend the knee. 
Bear with my sins, Mother mine ! 

List, Mother, while I pray: 
The load is greater than I can bear, 

I will confess to-day. 
Ghaist — Science now sees with Godlike eye — 

Turn on the Cathode ray ! 

O God! 'tis here that erring souls 

Confess so oft to me 
The sins they've done from day to day; 

'Tis here I take the pardoning fee, 
A servant to your holy law. 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 449 

The wafer on their lips I place; 
Ecclesiastical polity — a right from God — 

It saved the sinner from disgrace — 
Ghaist — the law and rites of gods and priests 

To Almighty man we trace. 

Like ithers, I'll take bread and wine 

(I'll feast while others fast) ; 
With holy water I'll wet my brow, 

By this the sinner's blest; 
Here in thy holy temple, O God! 

Men kneel, the cross they kiss; 
Faith gives them holy confidence, 

Supernal grace and bliss. 
Ghaist — the bliss o' ignorance ye ken — 

Losh! my opinion this. 

Great God, infallible I am to them, 

Infallible you are to me; 
A suppliant, I kneel and sue for grace — 

'Tis mercy, God, I ask of thee. 
Oh! give me Cyril's power, O God! 

That I may dethrone wrong; 
Oh! concentrate your legions, God, 

And make your fortress strong — 
Ghaist — but nae sae strong but what 'twill fall — 

Dissenters ye're among. 

'Tis here girls tell of wayward sins 

And ask to be forgiven ; 
'Tis here they tell the old, old tale, 

How poverty and cold has driven 



450 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

Them out into a cruel world, 

Where bread is hard to get; 
Into sin's whirlpool they are hurled, 

With cunningness sin's traps are set — 
Ghaist — poor weaklings! innocent and blin', 

Food and shelter hard to fin'. 

O God! so well I know 'tis true, 

'Twas in an hour like this, 
With cold and hunger in the home, 

Temptation their lips did kiss. 
Life struggles for existence, 

Attraction is a subtle king, 
His treacherous smile revives dead hope, 

Many pleasures he does bring — 
Ghaist — ye ken it weel just hoo they fa' — 

Bocacce has tauld it a'. 

The tempter gave them bread and wine; 

They whose purse held not one dime 
Did kneel before Temptation's shrine — 

Sad duty mine, sad duty mine. 
Evil with Argus-eye did worse; 

Lust gave them love, food and wine — 
Ghaist — He who noteth the sparrows fall 

Saw it all — saw it all. 

With Love's sweet promise he led them on, 

With glittering gold that lured, 
Into the beautiful palace of sin, 

Into a gilt-edged hell ensnared, 
Want bade them go within. 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 451 

Thou knowest their souls endured 
Much before they fell. 

Forgiveness I assured — 
Ghaist — poverty with empty maw, 

Stops nae for man-made law. 



To God's confessional men oft come, 

Confess their sins — yea, bold; 
You know, O Lord! confession 

Will keep them in the fold. 
'Tis here the treacherous wife reveals 

The dark ways of her life ; 
Forgiveness asks; she pays me well; 

I pass her, as a pure good wife ; 
The worldly sins of all my flock 

I cover as best I can: 
Confession and forgiveness, 

This is Salvation's plan. 
Ghaist — confession — confession, a devilish priestly plan ! 

Confession — confession, it enslaves the mind of man ! 

'Tis here the husband comes in prayer, 

Repentingly bends the knee ; 
I intercede with thee, O God ! 

With a confession to me, 
To please an angry God, 

He pays a princely fee ; 
Reveals the crimes of a burdened soul, 

Dark-dyed in the blood of his heart — ■ 
Virtue's maids he led astray, 

He played the villain's part. 



452 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

They pay the penalty of crime and shame 
With ruined character and blackened name. 

Ghaist — suicide takes them in his arms, 

Croons them to sleep with Death's weird charms. 

This is considerable less than half of this poem, but 
perhaps you will think this sufficient. You may not 
observe any of the earmarks which stamped his mun- 
dane poetry, but here is a span of over a hundred 
years to be bridged, and this bridge must also span the 
chasm between the two worlds. Still, the tone of his 
literature remains unchanged, in regard to his views of 
scapegoat atonement. 



CHAPTER VI 

Are we Spiritualists deceived? Am I and my wife 
deceived, and through ignorance are we trying to de- 
ceive the world? Some of our opponents tell us that 
this phenomena called spiritual is produced through the 
subconscious mind or second personality; that this sec- 
ond personality, if given an opportunity, will imper- 
sonate any individual that the sitter or medium may 
desire to see from the " supernal," will read the first 
personality's thoughts, and conversation in this way 
may be carried on ad libitum. 

That your second self will array itself for the pur- 
pose of deceiving your first self by the hour, this has a 
worse look than a house divided against itself; this 
looks as if the very individual was divided against 
himself y and for what purpose God only knows. This 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 458 

I regard as criminally underrating the wisdom of the 
Infinite. Of course, we have mirrors in this world made 
for the purpose of reflecting pur personality, and one 
can stand before one and act like a fool as long as he 
likes, but he is permitted to know what he is doing 
all this time. But to believe that a part of me will 
split loose and become a "you" to the part of me 
that retains the flesh for the purpose of deceiving the 
whole of me, is doing more violence to reason than I 
want done to mine. My wife does not possess as high 
a degree of power as some ; but let me ask the logician 
of this school, can this second personality move a stand 
at our request on a carpet with no visible power, no 
one touching it, or it touching nothing but the carpet 
it stood upon ? This has taken place in our house, and 
none but my wife and I in the room. 

If this were true in regard to second personality, it 
could cover but a very small part of the phenomena 
of the " seance room " ; and what is the pseudo-philos- 
opher going to do with his big remainder? He may 
call this fraud and satisfy himself this way, but this 
is not going to satisfy the world. Fraud-hunting I 
have no particular fascination for; it is the facts I 
want, and facts are what I propose to deal in. 

Now, in regard to " second personality phenomena," 
let us see what we would have to premise in this case 
which I will now describe. By the way, there comes 
to our seances sometimes many strangers, sometimes 
more than my wife can number ; our daughter Ren a is, 
however, always present, and many times introduces 
strangers to us, and if they wish to say anything to 
us, she talks or interprets for them. One time, my 



454 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

wife said, " Here comes a man ; he is rather stout built, 
of medium height; a good-looking man, and wants to 
talk." I asked Rena if she could ascertain his name. 
He introduced himself through her as Franz Vanbur- 
gen; that he was an old friend of my wife's grand- 
father; that they were classmates in a college in Ger- 
many and graduated at the same time (my wife's 
father's people were Germans) ; and he had been told by 
him (her grandfather) that he could hold converse with 
those in the flesh by coming here, and that was why 
he came (what a fulny second personality freak this 
of itself would be!). Well, he visited at some length 
and told us he would ome again the next Sunday 
evening, which he did. I cannot recall all that was 
said, but what I have in mind is, he asked my wife 
if she would not like to take a trip to Germany with 
him. I told him I thought that a pretty long journey 
to take for the first one, and questioned him, if such 
things were not accompanied with some danger. He 
said he thought not, but while the " medium " was ab- 
sent from her body she should not be disturbed in any 
way, like pricking her with pins or anything of the 
kind. 

I told him she was not very strong, and I did not 
wish her to take a voyage of this kind if there might 
be danger of her not returning safely. I asked him 
how long she would be absent from her body. He said 
perhaps about an hour. My wife and I proposed a 
short voyage first, to see how she stood it. Well, we 
all agreed to have her go with him to New York City 
and visit the Brooklyn Bridge. He told her to seat 
herself in an armchair and assume an easy position. 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 455 

This done, she said he has stepped right up to me and 
puts his hands on to my head. This was all she said, 
and immediately she became oblivious to all surround- 
ings. She appeared like one in a profound sleep for 
about fifteen minutes, which seemed like a much longer 
time to me and whille sitting there, I thought to 
myself, if she returns all right this time, she will 
not go to Europe in this way by any of my sanc- 
tion. 

Well, she returned all straight, only much exhausted. 
I had to help her out of her chair; but she said she 
had passed through a most wonderful experience ; that 
she found herself in what seemed like a large basket, 
with Mr. Vanburgen and our daughter and two or three 
other of her once earth-friends, and went with tremen- 
dous speed. And as she passed over the great metrop- 
olis, she could hear the din of the city, and then they 
found themselves landed upon this world-renowned 
bridge, and observed for a short space of time the busy 
throng passing over, some one way and some the other, 
the trolley cars and all. Then they headed their ve- 
hicle homeward, and in a short space found herself 
again in her mortal body. After helping her from 
her chair, I told her that would do me for that phase 
of manifestation. Our visitor claimed he knew his 
business, but that she was not strong enough to prac- 
tice this very much. Why I speak of this is : How is 
the second personality hypothesis going to reconcile 
this to rationality? Did my wife's second personality 
assume the form of a stranger, give a name that we 
neither of us had ever heard of as we know, and make 
this proposition and discourse about it, and finally 



456 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

agree on a voyage to Brooklyn Bridge? This second 
personality, then, entrances the first and deceives us 
in this way? This is a greater strain on credulity 
than to believe the thing as represented. 

I own this is hard to believe by the uninitiated, but 
through my investigations and studies I am satisfied 
that this ( extern alization) is a fact. She has since 
then went on two or three short journeys. A son of 
ours lives in Schenectady, perhaps about a hundred and 
fifty miles from here as the crow flies ; and one time 
some of our spirit relatives and the medium made up 
to go there and see her son and family. She went, and 
when she returned she gave a correct description of the 
house and its interior. She had never been there since 
he built the house, but when she went there a few 
months later in person, she said it was precisely the 
same as it appeared to her in her spirit journey. How 
is this thing done? I cannot tell. But, "Horatio, 
there are more things in heaven and earth than you 
have dreamed of in your philosophy." This is what 
our excarnate friends tell us, " That the spirit, not 
the body, is the real being, and that this mortal form 
is the first envelope through which the spirit manifests, 
and that it is possible for the real being to leave the 
form for a time, but there is always a connecting link 
or thread that will extend itself indefinitely around the 
earth, if need be. But if this thread is severed, the 
soul is released and death of the body is the result. 
I have never heard of a death from this cause, but this 
implies nothing. This thing the hypnotist will tell 
you. I had read of this in their works before I had 
a knowledge of Spiritualism. Our spirit friends tell 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 457 

us they are adepts at hypnotism. Have we any prece- 
dent of this kind of phenomena? 

Certainly, we have. And I will tell you directly, but 
let me first speak of one more excursion my wife took 
while out of the body. She once made an ascent to 
Heaven, but which heaven it was she did not learn. 
But she declared, with St. Paul, that she saw things 
unutterable. And this is what they tell us Paul meant : 
that things he saw transcended his power to describe; 
and this is what my wife says. 

This is the precedent I was going to speak of: when 
St. Paul "knew of a young man some fourteen years 
ago who made a similar ascent." You all know the 
Scriptural account. The fact is, the churchman is al- 
ways looking too 'far back and too far ahead and the 
eternal and wonderful " now " is overlooked. 

Since the time of my change of mind to Spiritualism 
I have arrested the attention of a few in our little town 
upon this subject. I do not think it worth while to 
try to convert a person that is unlearned ; if I ever did 
think so, I have had good reason to change my mind. 
But there was and is a man in our place that I have 
held in high esteem as a man of good ability and com- 
mon sense, and one that I knew was not strongly 
bound to modern churchanity. One time I told him 
what I had discovered and what the discovery had led 
me to believe. I told him my judgment might err and 
that I would be pleased if he would study along the 
same lines, and see if the trend of our conclusions would 
lead so that we could keep in sight of each other. He 
assented, and I told him what I had come to believe. 
He said to me, "Do you believe there is such a thing 



458 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

as hearing from and holding converse with the dead? " 
I told him I certainly did ; while he is not a man given 
to profanity, but I suppose he thought the stress of 
the occasion required it, and he said, " Well, by God, 
I don't believe it." 

I told him in substance I had not asked him if he 
believed, or to believe. But I did ask him if he would 
take some pains to investigate. I told him people 
were too much given to measuring others' knowledge 
with their ignorance, and I would like to have him 
study the ground over that I had been over up to 
date and then hand down his opinion. He agreed to 
this. I showed him the slates and told him the con- 
ditions under which I got the writing, and gave him 
a book to read, with the promise of more. I could see 
he thought I had been guyed, and I could also define 
his thoughts that he, without doubt, could clear up a 
mystery or two for me. 

The next year, while Lily Dale camp was in session, 
he went there without advising me, we suppose, in a 
measure for the purpose of clearing up some mysteries 
and making me wise. He found Pierre Keeler doing 
business at the old stand, but could not get an engage- 
ment with him, because he was overcrowded with work ; 
but by good luck he got a chance with another medium 
for this phase by the name of Fred P. Evens. Among 
the ones he addressed for a message was a man who 
had died a few years before, who was well known in 
our town and was a member of one of the churches and 
had been a lifelong church worker. Well, during the 
engagement Mr. Evens said — (it should be remembered 
that this medium is clairvoyant and could communicate 
with those who came mentally or by telepathy) : 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 459 

"There is a man here who seems badly unstrung; he 
is very trembly and cannot write; he gives his name 

." This investigator says the medium did not 

give the name just exactly correct, but so near that 
there could be no mistake here, and he knows the me- 
dium did not see any of the names he wrote. 

Well, he got his slates filled with this mysterious 
writing, with the names assigned, but no message from 
this one. He purchased some books from some of the 
leading authors in the occult and returned home. He 
then told me where he had been, and what he had seen ; 
his face wore a pleased expression as he related his 
experience. It was evident he had run against some- 
thing very different from what he had expected, and 
before he explained it away he had better take some 
more time for study. Another thing he found differ- 
ent than he expected, he found a class of people there 
that impressed him very much by their friendly atti- 
tude toward each other, and their high degree of intel- 
ligence. 

Now, in regard to this one that could not write on 
the slates. I had before this asked my father about 
many who had passed over, if he had met them, and 
how it was with them, and this, and that, just to see 
what conclusion to arrive at, and amongst the rest I 
asked him about this one, and he said, " He did not 
seem to have yet recovered from the shock that the 
change produced; as the saying goes, he seems to be 
off his base." He wrote this with no suggestion from 
us. I consider this of value, but do not wish to force 
it upon any. This was written through my wife's hand 
before her clairvoyant vision had developed. 

Now, I would ask if second personality is responsi- 



460 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

ble for all this, why is it we are not conscious of this 
second self until we are impressed from some cause that 
there is truth in Spiritualism My wife and I were 
both past fifty before we had any knowledge of it, 
and all of these years this second personality lay per- 
fectly dormant, and at this late day it comes to life 
or a state of consciousness and monkeys in this way, 
and for what purpose? I must own this is beyond my 
power to tell. The truth is, this is a materialistic 
hatchment to deceive the uninitiated. 

Here is an automatic writing through the hand of 
my wife from Abraham Lincoln. How do we know 
this? My wife says, "Here comes Abraham Lincoln." 
She has all confidence it is him, and I have no doubts. 
Abraham Lincoln has made us a call several times, and 
I have advised with him in regard to this book ; and not 
him alone, but a number of our great men. They tell 
us the word great does not have the same significance 
with them it does with us, and wherever they can reach 
our plane for the purpose of helping humanity they 
are pleased to do so. This from A. Lincoln came just 
recently: "Dear friends, according to my promise, I 
am here. You must know, as I was your president I 
have your interest at heart as I did then. I was unex- 
pectedly cut off in the midst of my labors or before I 
was ready to go. But, my friends, I am doing more, 
far more for oppressed and suffering humanity than I 
ever could if I had not been cut down by the assassin's 
hand. I can tell you this much: the greatest curse to 
civilized nations is the false religion that is being 
taught by priests of all churches. The time is com- 
ing when priestly rule will be swept from your earth; 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 461 

then the lion and the lamb will lie down together. 
Spiritualism has come to set men free from the yoke 
of worse than slavery : the black cloud of the bigot and 
creed-bound fanatic. Keep courage, for there is a 
mighty force on this plane that is watching and im- 
pressing your head men to liberate and help earth- 
bound mortals to better conditions. I will commence 
here next time. Good-night." I will try and connect 
this writing with our last "seance." My talk then 
was more about myself. I will now write on a more 
wonderful theory — spirit return. If a man die, shall 
he live again ? This is my answer : Yes ; for Spirit- 
ualism has come to set men free from the thraldom and 
fetters of false doctrines ; Spiritualism is the light that 
has come at last from out the misty past; the black 
cloud of superstition is passing away slow but sure. 
Oh, what efforts the churches are trying to make to 
overthrow it! But it has come to stay. The almost 
persuaded ones are halting and waiting, dare not let 
their thoughts be known for fear of popular opinion; 
the battle is on, and will be fought out and victory 
will be proclaimed. I well know how you people feel; 
be patient and quiet ; you need not bow your heads in 
humility in so urgent a cause as this. I will give you 
more next time, as you are growing weary. Good- 
night. 

"I will make the right connection from our last 
seance. What is there more to say than has been said 
to strengthen in favor of the eternal truth of Spirit- 
ualism? I can tell those that seem to have a belief 
in it to do some thinking for themselves, to read and 
investigate, that you may convince yourselves, if you 



462 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

are halting between two opinions; try to choose the 
most rational, reasonable one, for it will take a load 
from your doubtful position and Truth will shine out 
like a luminary in its transcendent splendor and beauty. 
My friends, you can fill in of your own experience, so 
your friends and whoever reads your book may be con- 
vinced. If you have made the teachings of your book 
plain, I will say to you, add to your book what you 
know of the truths of Spiritualism, and I do not think 
you will need any more of my help. You will correct 
all my mistakes in writing, and remember, this is some- 
what difficult to keep my message correct, as I no 
longer belong on your side of life. I shall aid and 
help you. Good-night. 

"A. Lincoln." 

I have given you Mr. Lincoln's writing just as it 
appeared on the paper. How is it done? When the 
visitor expresses a wish to write or when invited, my 
wife is provided with a pencil and writing-tablet ; she 
then becomes semiconscious and her hand begins to 
write, and I turn the leaves when necessary. The writ- 
ing is usually a pretty coarse scrawl, and well spread 
on the paper, and not always easy to read. Mr. Lin- 
coln is radical in his expressions. This is characteristic 
of him. He was a radical man when with us, as all 
the world knows. 

The writings that have come through my wife's 
hand would make a small volume. I will promise you 
one more communication from her hand which is yet 
to come. This is to be from an old friend of hers. 
When she was but a girl of sixteen she went some 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 463 

forty miles from home to teach a district school. This 
friend was an old teacher, about thirty years of age, 
and took a friendly interest in her, and she greatly re- 
spected him, and he frankly owns, since meeting with 
us in spirit, that he loved her. 

He has come many times ; in fact, he was the first 
person that ever controlled her to write through her 
hand; and I have seen the pencil write by him with- 
out her grasping it; it simply lay between her thumb 
and forefinger and wrote entirely independent, save to 
lean against her hand; it was not very legible scrawl, 
but could be read. He came to our last seance and 
I asked him if he would like to write a few words for 
my book? He said he would, but would need time to 
prepare it, and he would come again in two weeks. 

He passed from earth about thirty years ago ; he 
was a single man at the time spoken of, but had a 
girl in that neighborhood, whom he afterwards mar- 
ried, who guarded him with jealous care. So my wife 
says. 

While we are waiting for my wife's friend, I will 
give you an account of a materialization seance by 
this same medium through whom I received the slate- 
writing P. L. O. A. Keeler. Of late years he has be- 
come a materializing medium, as well as independent 
writing. 

What is materialization? "That is the question." 
It is the highest phase of physical manifestation, and 
one that the unprincipled juggler is most likely to 
counterfeit. This is a phase that often staggers the 
belief of professed Spiritualists, owing to the fact that 
there is so much said derogatory to it, and also to 



464 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

frequent accounts of what are called fraud exposures. 

I will give you as briefly as possible a summary of 
what our spirit teachers tell us in regard to the philos- 
ophy or chemistry of this wonderful manifestation. We 
have accounts of it in the Scripture, of Moses and Elias 
on the Mount of Transfiguration, the angel wrestling 
with Jacob, etc. ; so, though called modern, it has prec- 
edents from remote antiquity. 

The medium through whom this manifestation is 
produced, needs a small enclosure called a cabinet, in 
which the medium enters, and where the spirit chemists 
perform their work. And through their knowledge 
with correct conditions, excluding the white sunlight 
and substituting a subdued artificial one, the spirits 
always dictate what the light should be. When ready, 
with the medium in the cabinet, usually under strictest 
conditions. A number of sitters are necessary for 
good results, which takes the strain in a measure from 
the medium. The medium is in most cases profoundly 
entranced. Then the spirit chemists commence their 
work. They draw from the body of the medium and 
also from the circle sufficient substance to clothe a 
spirit with a temporary body, which for a time can 
appear outside of the cabinet, can talk and walk about 
and be recognized by friends. Sometimes the form is 
not very substantial and falls to pieces in the pres- 
ence of the sitters, or apparently sinks through the 
floor. Again, the form assumes the solidity of an 
inhabitant of earth and is as tangible to touch and 
sight. At such times the medium is much reduced in 
weight. I have read where the medium was placed 
upon a scales during the seance, and during a mate- 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 465 

realization his weight was diminished by fourteen 
pounds. 

I suppose many will say upon reading this, what a 
credulous, gullible lot are those Spiritualists? But you 
will find upon investigation the ones who are the most 
blatant in their denunciations are those who know 
nothing about it, and are basing their conclusions upon 
their ignorance. As W. H. Batch once said : " To 
argue that he had not seen his brother materialized 
would be akin to arguing that he himself did not exist, 
that both were based upon the same evidence." 

With these words of introduction, we r will proceed 
with this promised seance, copied from the Sunflower: 



CHAPTER Vn 

"SPIRITS RECONCILED AT LAST 

"Margaret Fox and Her Husband Are Brought 
Together at Seance — Both Materialized. 

(Contributed by Dr. Hausmann.) 
" March 20, 1909, at Mr. Pierre L. 0. A. Keeler's 
light-seance, I was called by the spirit George Christy, 
the faithful guide of the medium, to sit with Mr. 
Keeler in front of the curtain which is drawn" across 
the cabinet, and under another curtain to sit, as it 
were, in an interior cabinet. On such occasions the 
seance room is only illuminated by a lantern, with mov- 
able slide, regulated by the spirits themselves, accord- 
ing to requirement. Some spirits tolerate more, others 
less, orange light. The lantern is at the farthest end 



466 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

of the room, the slide connected by a wire with the 
interior of the principal cabinet. 

"Mr. Keeler was sitting about 1-J feet from my 
left side, our hands not joined. Many times we con- 
verse when spirits are talking with their friends. Some 
spirits assert that it is easier for them to speak when 
I am sitting with Mr. K. and often lean heavily on my 
left shoulder. (On a former occasion General Stone- 
wall Jackson spoke from the floor, about %\ feet from 
my right foot.) 

"At this seance a spirit appeared first through the 
curtain of the cabinet, above our heads, then came out, 
spread a veil over a lady's head, and turned toward 
General Floyd King. Not being strong enough yet, 
this spirit retired into the cabinet to gain more 
strength. After a few moments she came out and, 
again, to General King, gave her name, talked with 
him, and ultimately disappeared at his feet. One of 
the many spirits who saluted their friends, and had 
sometimes an extended conversation with them was the 
famous Arctic explorer, Elisha Kent Kane. He spoke 
principally with Mr. F. A. Palmer. As Mr. Palmer 
was again at a seance, where spirits came in materi- 
alized form, and I sitting farther away from the cab- 
inet, so that I was not able to see and hear distinctly, 
I begged him for a report of these manifestations. I 
did not ask in vain, and received the following letter, 
whose lucidity speaks for itself: 

"'Dear Dr. Hatjsmann: It gives me pleasure to 
comply with your request for a description of a seance 
held under the auspices of the mediumship of Mr. Pierre 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 467 

Keeler, of Fairmount St., Washington, D. C, whose 
medlumistic powers in this line of manifestation are 
unrivaled. His able and veteran guide, George Christy 
(the old-time minstrel), in light-seances, and Washing- 
ton Emmons, who conducts the materialization, always 
insure the seekers after light with entertaining and 
convincing proof that the saying of the Master, " Be- 
cause I live ye shall also live," is true. 

" * March 20 at a small gathering at Mr. Keeler's, 
that well-known Arctic explorer, Elisha Kent Kane, 
appeared, and was identified. He wore a fur cap, or- 
dinary clothing, and was well and substantially devel- 
oped. I had a slight acquaintance with him, having 
met him before he entered the other realm. He said 
he wanted to make a confession to me, concerning his 
relations to his wife, Margaret Fox-Kane (one of the 
Fox sisters, pioneers in the development of Modern 
Spiritualism), whom he married and repudiated at the 
instigation of his family, who refused to acknowledge 
her. He said it was a cowardly act, and that, while 
he had courage enough to brave the rigors of the Arc- 
tic region, he was too weak, mean and cowardly to 
stand by his wife, and that as a consequence he had 
not seen her since they passed over. That he had al- 
ways loved her and that he could not be happy and 
at peace until he met her, asked forgiveness for his 
base act, and was reconciled. He entreated me to use 
my influence to bring about a meeting between 
them. 

"'I answered, it would afford me pleasure to be of 
service and at once asked George Christy if he could 
not get in communication with Mrs. Fox-Kane. He 



468 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

said her whereabouts was unknown to him, but that 
through Washington Emmons he would try to trace 
her and bring her there. 

" ' So much for this phase of the episode. Now for 
the denouement: 

" ; March 29th, again a small circle assembled at 
Mr. Keeler's. During the evening a medium-sized fe- 
male form, clad in white, came out from one end of 
the simple cabinet (instead of from the front, as usual) 
and stood quietly behind the chair of Mr. Albert Hall, 
who was announcing the names of friends as they ap- 
peared. She clearly gave the name of Margaret Fox. 
I at once stepped forward to meet her, and at the 
same time Mr. Kane appeared at the other end of the 
cabinet (Mr. Keeler, entranced, occupying the center 
behind the curtain). 

" * I gave Mrs. Kane a word of greeting, expressing 
my pleasure at her presence, and proceeded to welcome 
her husband, who grasped my hand and said earnestly, 
"Is she here?" I said, "Yes, and I am more than 
glad to be able to bring you together." Placing my 
arm over and around his shoulders, I drew him toward 
the form of his repudiated and deserted wife. Mr. 
Hall arose as she moved slowly and reluctantly toward 
us. When we met, I took her hand, placed it in his, 
put my arms about both their shoulders and drew them 
together. Feeling deeply the pathos of this scene, I 
said, " God bless you, and may this reconciliation bring 
you both much happiness." They both cordially em- 
braced, kissed each other, and he expressed his delight 
and gratitude at being at last reunited and entreated 
her to forgive him for his neglect and desertion. After 






PROGRESSIVE AGE OP REASON 469 

a moment they, still embracing, disappeared through 
the floor, without re-entering the cabinet. 

" * During a half century of experiences in all phases 
of mediumship and all forms of spiritual manifestations, 
with an acquaintance personal and intimate with Home, 
Slade, Foster, Willis, and a host of others, I do not re- 
call a more pathetic or dramatic incident. 

" ' This is a brief narration of the event, with- 
out embellishment, and can be verified by those pres- 
ent. 

" € The emotions of the circle were deeply stirred and 
they manifested their approval and appreciation by 
applause and comment of surprise and delight. 

" ' In closing I desire to express my confidence in the 
honesty and genuineness of the wonderful manifesta- 
tions through Mr. Keeler, though why reputable men 
and women in this field of psychic research require to 
be vouched for any more than other people, is beyond 
my comprehension. I have derived great pleasure, com- 
fort and benefit through Mr. Keeler 's mediumship, 
" ' Sincerely yours, 

"'A. Palmer. 

" ' New Canaan, Conn.' " 

"The Progress of Spiritualism," by Titus Merritt, 
impresses me as being exceedingly well suited to this 
place in my book while we are waiting for Mr. Gear- 
mans and one or two others who have promised a con- 
tribution. 

" This history of the development of religious ideals 
furnishes no parallel to the progress of Modern Spirit- 
ualism, whether we consider its essential nature, the 



470 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

means employed! for its advancement, or the rapidity 
of its triumphs. The term modern plainly indicates an 
ancient spiritualism, which is older than the Egyptian 
obelisk, and looks down on us from an eminence above 
the pyramids. The evidences of its phenomena runs 
back through the shadowy past, until they are lost in 
prehistoric periods. In every age some voice has 
spoken, vaguely, perhaps, out of the darkness, to ad- 
monish us that visible forms are not all of life, and that 
tangible substances do not embrace the more essential 
elements of being. The 28th chapter of 1st Samuel 
gives ample evidence that the woman of En-dor was an 
excellent true clairvoyant medium, a respectable woman, 
and when King Saul said to his servant, * Seek me a 
woman that hath a familair spirit,' it plainly indicates 
that Saul realized there was a law which would enable 
him to communicate with Samuel, and he did rely upon 
the communication, and his servant was as well posted 
as I who have been in the city for the last thirty years 
when he immediately replied, * There is one at En-dor,' 
and the message given by her proved true. 

" All of the Christian sects have been preaching and 
teaching immortality, but when the absolute proof 
came they were not ready to accept it. The Modern 
Spiritual reformation dawned at Hydesville, Wayne 
County, N. Y., March 21st, 1848, but was fully 
established in November the same year at Rochester, 
N. Y., by the aid of Isaac Post, progressive member of 
the Society of Friends, of the Hicksite branch commonly 
called Quakers. 

" From the beginning of the present movement Spir- 
itualism has been obliged to contend with an unscrupu- 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 471 

lous opposition. The enemy has employed every avail- 
able means to mislead the public mind in respect to its 
real merits and the amazing magnitude of its propor- 
tions. 

" For more than sixty years that opposition inspired 
at once by dogmatic theology of the church, the scien- 
tific materialism of the schools, and the popular skepti- 
cism of the time — has used the secular press to dispute 
and misinterpret the facts, to misrepresent our prin- 
ciples and practices before the world to conceal and 
prevent the truth, to caricature innocent persons and 
public assemblies, to excite feelings of disgust at the 
mere mention of the name, and of contempt for our 
most sacred convictions, to denounce all mediums as un- 
principled tricksters, and to defame the honest disciple 
of a great but unpopular truth. Notwithstanding the 
opposition, it has continued to advance rapidly, and is 
making progress within all denominations. 

" I am glad to know that the secular press has given 
much more attention to the subject. In its inception 
such scientists as Dr. Robert Hare and Prof. Mapes 
were converted. At the present time scientists are giv- 
ing much attention to this all-important subject. 
Spiritualism does not deny any truth advanced by any 
denomination or scientific society; but erroneous opin- 
ions set forth as true, the laymen are unable to prove 
the opinion untrue and it is accepted for years. 
Ptolemy, King of Egypt, A. D. 150, advanced the 
theory that the sun and stars revolved around the earth 
every twenty-four hours. His subjects accepted this 
as true, but when Copernicus proved Ptolemy's theory 
was not correct, he, knowing the disposition of those 



472 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

in power, waited until on his deathbed and then di- 
vulged. 

Galileo, about 100 years later, had solved the prob- 
lem and found Copernicus correct, and published it. 
The Cardinals at Rome sentenced him to be burnt at 
the stake, if he did not publicly deny it." 



CHAPTER VIII 

There is one account more of a seance I wish to give 
you by this same medium Pierre L. O. A. iCeeler, which 
has been promised me by my townsman and co-inves- 
tigator, before mentioned, but as it has not yet come to 
hand, we will place this among the things to be ex- 
pected, and fill in the interim with something that per- 
haps will interest you. 

Did you ever hear of the Psychical Research Soci- 
ety? 

Some of you will say, " Yes," and may look with sur- 
prise and wonder where I hail from, for asking such a 
question. But I premise the great majority of the 
people of our land if asked would say no they have 
never heard of it, or if they have they know nothing 
of it, what it has done or what it essays to do. I 
cannot go into details in regard to this guild from 
the fact that I have not its full history, and, if I 
had, it would likely be too cumbersome for the space 
I could give. So I will confine myself to the things 
that have interested me concerning this scientific and 
matter-of-fact society. A number of years ago when 
Modern Spiritualism was younger than now, this branch 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 473 

society was formed in America with Dr. Richard Hod- 
son, Prof. James H. Hyslop and Prof. William James 
at its head. These three men pledged each other that 
the one that crossed the " divide " first if he found him- 
self alive and in possession of his personality, memory 
and mentality and there was such a thing as proving 
his identity to this Society, he would labor to that 
end as long as these other colleagues remained in the 
flesh. Well in the course of human events Richard 
Hodson died a few years ago, and whether he has 
proved his identity or no is what has agitated this 
Society as well as all believers in Spiritualism from the 
time of his exit till now. " Has Dr. Hodson been heard 
from ? " There is no reason why we should not all be 
as much interested in this question as is Mr. Hyslop 
or Mr. James. If it is proved that Dr. Hodson still 
lives, and is heard from, this verdict could settle the 
millions of cases upon the occult calendar awaiting 
trial. 

This case you will observe is unique in several re- 
spects. Dr. Hodson was an eminent man and purely 
"matter-of-fact, and at the outset entertained no belief 
whatever that consciousness survived the death of the 
body, and as all of these men are men of high posi- 
tion and have given their lives to the study of ab- 
struse subjects, and that they have espoused this 
cause," to prove a matter scientifically, that should 
concern us above any that can engage our thoughts, 
" If a man dies, shall he live again." I will tell you as 
far as I have learned. "Has Dr. Hodson been heard 
from?" 

We are indebted to Dr. Isaac K. Funk for permitting 



474 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

us to copy from a book of his entitled, " The Psychic 
Riddle." Mr. Funk has probed Spiritualism much 
longer, and has had an experience vastly outmeasuring 
mine, he has contributed much along Spiritualistic 
lines that is of inestimable value to the searcher for 
truth. 

"Communications purporting to come from Dr. 
Richard Hodson. 

"I am for all personal purposes convinced of the 
persistence of human existence beyond bodily death, 
and although I am unable to justify that belief in 
full and complete manner, yet it is a belief that has 
been produced by Scientific evidence, that is, it is based 
upon facts and experience. 

Sir Oliver Lodge." 

"Has any communication been received from Dr. 
Hodson since his death? 

"Prof. James H. Hyslop thinks yes. 

" He assures us that since the Doctor's death he has 
received communications which were so clear and evi- 
dential as to lead him to believe that the speaker was 
his old friend and co-worker. 

"What are these communications? 

"That is a matter of secondary importance. 

" The matter of primary importance — and it is pro- 
foundly important and interesting — is that the com- 
munications were of a nature and given under such test 
conditions, that they fully convinced Prof. Hyslop of 
the identity of the spirit speaker. The Professor is not 
a novice at these investigations; he is well versed in 
modern psychology ; intimately acquainted with all the 
latest facts and with explanatory theories as the sub- 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 475 

limal or subjective mind, second personalities, telep- 
athy, the * consciousness of circles/ Dr. J. Max- 
well's novel theory; is as far removed from sentimen- 
tality as is one pole from the other ; with a tempera- 
mental bent toward scientific materialism — it is a sig- 
nificant fact that both he and Dr. Hodson entered 
upon their psychic investigations believing that when 
man dies, his personality ends, that he — all of him — 
is tumbled into the bowels of the earth, is digested and 
assimilated, becoming possibly part of some other liv- 
ing organization, but will never know again his former 
self — is cool-headed, a trained scientist, a close obser- 
ver, and is a keen logical thinker, having been, until 
ill health compelled him to resign, professor of logic 
in Columbia University. 

" Besides, Professor Hyslop was probably more inti- 
mately acquainted than any other man on earth with 
the mental and spiritual idiosyncrasies of Dr. Hodson, 
a fact that should add great weight to his startling 
testimony. Should it not give the most skeptical of 
us pause, when such a one says to us, that he is con- 
vinced that he has had repeated intelligent communi- 
cations from Dr. Hodson since his death? 

"It would indeed be strange if there is a sane man 
on earth who is not stirred at the thought of a possible 
scientific demonstration of the belief that a man who 
dies lives again : I say scientific demonstration. * Man's 
repellent attitude to new truths, even those of vital 
importance to himself, is one of the curious things of 
history.' " 

(The truths — those surprising, amazing, unforeseen 
truths — which our descendants will discover, are even 



476 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

now all around about, staring us in the eyes, so to 
speak and yet we see them not. But it is not enough 
to say we see them not; we do not wish to see them.) 

"What fools we mortals be!" 

"This fact should also carry weight: these * com- 
munications from Dr. Hodson ' came through Mrs. 
Piper, when she was in a deep trance, for there re- 
main no grounds for reasonable doubt that when so- 
called communications come through her, Mrs. Piper 
is wholly unconscious. For many years this fact had 
been tested by every method known to medical science, 
by such experts as Dr. Hodson, Prof. Hyslop, and 
with not a little assistance from Prof. William James 
of Harvard, the most famous of American psychologists 
and others. Her utter unconsciousness when in trance 
was proven by touching her eyeballs and running a 
needle under her finger nails, and through her tongue, 
and by putting red pepper in her nostrils and throat — 
all these seemingly cruel tests were made without yield- 
ing any evidence of the slightest physical reaction. 
And then, in addition for many months her mail was 
watched, herself shadowed by detectives, she not being 
permitted even to have conversation with anyone ex- 
cept in the presence of representatives of the Society — 
this watch was under the direction of Dr. Hodson, 
whom Sir William Crooks pronounced before the Royal 
Society, as the keenest psychic detective that probably 
the world has ever seen. 

"Dr. Hodson had schooled himself in physical jug- 
glery and mental magic, having studied the art both in 
India and in the Western world. And, withal, he had 
what may be justly described as a detective's instinct 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 477 

for fraud along psychic lines, as is strikingly revealed 
in the narration of his exposure of Madame Blavatsky. 

" He knew modern psychology. He had an eye that 
saw through the motives of men — also ' eyes and ears 
in his mind,' as was said of blind Huber, who saw more 
of being than any man with his physical eyes, even 
though aided by the microscope, ever before had seen. 
As has been said of another, Hodson could see and 
hear with his eyes, and hear and see with his ears. 

"Thus equipped, Dr. Hodson had absolute charge 
of the movements of Mrs. Piper for twenty years, and 
subjected her to every test he could conceive of, and 
at the expiration of this score of years he died, a year 
ago, with perfect faith in her integrity. And now, 
after all these years of complete control of her * sit- 
tings,' this medium's honesty is fully accepted by those 
who, with Dr. Hodson, were the American leaders of 
the Society for Psychical Research, and scarcely less 
absolutely by the European leaders of the same so- 
ciety. However, Prof. Hyslop tells us that though he 
regards her as wholly trustworthy, yet his conclusions 
in favor of the spirit hypothesis do not depend in the 
slightest upon her honesty, as his experiments with her 
are of such a nature that as far as the phenomena 
are concerned it does not signify in the slightest 
whether she is honest or dishonest. This also was true 
with Dr. Hodson's experiments. 

" The plan adopted by what claimed to be Dr. Hod- 
son's ghost, to identify himself, was simply to remind 
Prof. Hyslop of some facts that were known only to 
these two men, as: 

" 1. Tests which Prof. Hyslop made before Dr. Hod- 



478 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

son's death through a medium who is the wife of a 
Congregational minister in New England, concerning 
whose supernormal powers he and Dr. Hodson had dif- 
fered. In these spirit communications through Mrs. 
Piper, Dr. Hodson told Prof. Hyslop that since his 
death he had visited this medium and, * I found things- 
better than I thought.' 

" £. He reminded Prof. Hyslop of a certain colored- 
water test that Hyslop had applied in testing a class 
of phenomena some 500 miles distant from Boston, and 
concerning which tests nothing had been mentioned in 
Mrs. Piper's presence prior to this spirit communica- 
tion. 

" S. He reminded Prof. Hyslop of a discussion that 
they had had over cutting down the manuscript of one 
of Hyslop's books several years ago. This and other 
communications were of an evidential test character. 

"In making these communications there was, ac- 
cording to Prof. Hyslop, a display of a number of 
mental idiosyncrasies which were peculiarly character- 
istic of Dr. Hodson. 

" True enough, many of the things recalled to Prof. 
Hyslop's memory are trivial, not the kind of things 
that the average mind is apt to suppose a spirit com- 
ing across the 'great divide' would bother to tell us 
about. But it must be borne in mind that the im- 
portance or triviality of the communication is not the 
vital point, but the fact of any communication from 
a spirit intelligence is inexpressibly important. 

"Facts will not permit us to waive them aside be- 
cause they seem to us to be trivial. Sooner or later 
they, if they be facts, will compel recognition — that is 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 479 

their way; for a series of facts is as unyielding as a 
table of logarithms, and it is the business of science 
to account for them, however trivial they may seem 
to be. Sir Oliver Lodge, in a late paper before the So- 
ciety for Psychical Research in London, talked sanely 
of the duty of scientists touching such matters. He 
insisted ' that psychic phenomena should be thoroughly 
investigated on their merits apart from all preconcep- 
tion. ... In studying them, no phenomenon or in- 
strument was too trivial; if the movement of an un- 
touched object was a fact, and one hitherto unknown 
to science, it did not matter how trivial was the ob- 
ject moved. If a communication showed signs of hy- 
pernormal intelligence or clairvoyance, it mattered not 
how trifling was the event perceived.' 

"But, after all, is it not true that it is by trivial 
things often we best identify old acquaintances? An 
important incident in their lives is apt to be known 
to a large number of people, and may have got into 
print, or otherwise noised abroad; hence, to be told 
about it is of little evidential value as to the identity 
of the speaker. Dr. Hodson again and again, when 
in the flesh, declared that spirits would best prove their 
identity by exactly the methods this intelligence here 
adopts. The following two incidents will illustrate the 
point : 

" The wife of Judge A. H. Dailey, of Brooklyn, is 
a sensitive. One of her controls is a man who claims 
to have been a sea-captain, when on earth, declaring 
that he passed out of life during the Civil War. To 
identify himself, he described his early home in a small 
town in Massachusetts, where, he said, his mother's 



480 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

grave could be seen in the old graveyard, the tomb- 
stone having on it her name, which name he gave to 
Judge Dailey. The Judge determined to visit the 
town, a town which neither he nor his wife had ever 
previously visited, nor had they ever heard of this sea- 
captain or of any members of his family — knew noth- 
ing, in fact, about him. He and his wife went to the 
town, found the gravestone in the old graveyard, and 
the name inscribed as told by the spirit. This was a 
trivial fact, but to Judge Dailey it was conclusive. 

" It is difficult to see how telepathy or mind-reading 
or any theory of secondary personality could account 
for a fact of this sort, while coincidence and fraud are 
wholly debarred. 

"A clergyman friend of mine who is very skeptical 
as to Spiritualism told me that on one occasion he, 
unannounced and without any previous plan, visited a 
seance in Boston, where he is sure that he was wholly 
unknown. In the circle a woman, not the medium, sud- 
denly spoke to him, saying, * Pardon me, but I see a 
man in military uniform standing by your side, and he 
asks that I tell you "Willie Cullum" is here.' The 
clergyman telling the story said, 6 1 tried to appear 
indifferent and replied to the woman, " Well, what has 
William Cullum to say to me? " She replied, " He says 
he is not William but * Willie Cullum,' and that he 
simply wishes you to know that he is here." ' 

" My friend was dumfounded, for he says that in his 
college days, far distant from Boston, a most intimate 
friend of his was a Willie Cullum. This friend went to 
war and was killed. 'We,' continued the clergyman, 
'were so intimate that he would have been shocked if 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 481 

I had called him William.' That little point about 
the name was trivial, yet are we not justified in giving 
it weight? 

"Another case in point: 

" Mrs. Pepper at one time announced that the spirit 
of a woman was present who gave her name as 'Mar- 
tha,' and said that she was my mother, and that she 
had a grandchild with her whose name was 'Chester.' 
I replied, 'If the spirit is really my mother, can she 
not identify herself to me?' The reply was instanta- 
neous: 'Isaac, do you remember that needle?' 

" Twoscore years ago, when I was a lad at home in 
Springfield, Ohio, my mother, stepping from a chair, 
stepped on a needle that was standing upright in the 
carpet. It ran through her slipper into her foot. She 
called me from an adjoining room. I was unable to 
extract the needle until I secured a pair of pincers from 
a neighboring shoe-shop. Great suffering and paraly- 
sis followed, ending in death in about ten days. A 
needle is a little thing, but this incident was well se- 
lected to prove identity, with the exception that the 
fact was in my own mind. My brother 'B. F.,' some 
thirty years ago, buried a baby child in the West, by 
the name of ' Chester.' If I had ever known this fact, 
it had wholly passed from my memory." 

We will not follow Mr. Funk any farther upon this 
subject, "Has Dr. Hodson Been Heard From?" We 
have later advices from the spirit realm upon this all- 
absorbing question. Through a report of this same 
Psychical Research Society, which appeared in a re- 
cent copy of the Sunflower: 



488 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

" Sir Oliver Lodge Gives Results of a Series of 
Experiments — Reality of Continuous Life. 

"By Gustavus Myers. 

"The long-awaited report of the experiments of 
Sir Oliver Lodge and other members of the British So- 
ciety for Psychical Research in seeking to prove that 
communication can be carried on between living cor- 
poreal persons and the spirits of the departed has at 
last appeared. Although it has been published but a 
short time, the report has excited a tremendous com- 
motion in scientific and religious circles in England. 
Doubtless it will have the same effect here. 

" It was these experiments that caused Sir Oliver 
Lodge to declare recently before the British Society 
for Psychical Research that exhaustive tests had 
proved the survival of human intelligence in discarnate 
form. ' Well-known persons,' he said, ' are constantly 
purporting to communicate with us for the express 
purpose of patiently proving their known personalities 
and giving evidence of knowledge appropriate to them. 

" ' Not easily or early do we make this admission, 
in spite of the long conversations with what purported 
to be the surviving intelligence of those friends and 
investigators. We were by no means convinced of their 
identity until crucial proof, difficult even to imagine, 
had, according to some of our beliefs, been supplied.' 

"Proposed Experiments 'Kept Secret Until Tests 

Made. 
" In making this assertion, Sir Oliver did not reveal 
the nature of the experiments. He announced that he 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 483 

would not anticipate the facts contained in the report, 
but would ask the world to wait until the report itself 
comprehensively appeared, when a more proper judg- 
ment could be formed of the base upon which he and 
his associate rested their conclusions. Since then, the 
scientific and a great part of the lay world has awaited 
with eager interest the publication of this important 
report. 

" It was by no means a secret that the experimenters 
had the purpose in view of attempting to carry on 
definite, unmistakable communications with the spirits 
of Frederick W. H. Myers and Dr. Richard Hodson. 
Clergyman, poet, classical scholar, and scientist, Myers 
was a luminously brilliant investigator of psychic phe- 
nomena; his great work, 'Human Personality,' is one 
of the most original, profound and impressive works 
that has ever appeared from the pen of man. He was 
a leading member of the British Society for Psychical 
Research, with a genius for fathoming the secrets of 
the great unknown, and his death in 1901 was greatly 
deplored. 

" Dr. Richard Hodson, a Boston physician, was long 
the secretary of the American Society for Psychical 
Research, and gave up years of his life to a painstak- 
ing, patient study of the whole range of psychical phe- 
nomena, closely questioning each, and distinguishing 
the genuine from the false. 

"Expected Communications from Myers and Hodson. 

" Apart, however, from the meager information that 
the experimenters purposed to get into communication, 



484 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

if possible, with the discarnate intelligences of Myers 
and Hodson, nothing was known of the methods of 
the experimenters or of the results of the tests. This 
knowledge was carefully guarded from the outside 
world until the tests were brought to a conclusion and 
the results compared and weighed. 

" The full details are now set forth in the report. 

" To make the experiments as conclusive as the brain 
of mortal man could conceive, the British Society for 
Psychical Research decided to put various well-known 
mediums through a series of concordant 6 automatisms.' 
Popularly explained, this means that arrangements 
were made to have parts of the same purported mes- 
sages from spirit land conveyed through different me- 
diums at the same time, although at a distance. One 
part, it was planned, would come through Mrs. Piper 
at one place, another part through Mrs. Verall at 
another place, and other parts through the agency of 
other mediums at still other places. This system of 
cross-correspondence was an original one; it had never 
been tried before; and at every stage it was subjected 
to the severest and most rigid scientific precaution and 
tests. 

"At the invitation of the Council of the British So- 
ciety for Psychical Research, Mrs. Piper went to Eng- 
land. The management of the sittings was entrusted 
by the council to a committee composed of the Right 
Hon. G. W. Balfour, then president of the Society; 
Sir Oliver Lodge, Frank Padmore, a well-known im- 
partial critic of the spiritualistic hypothesis ; Mrs. 
Henry Sidgwick, now president of the Society, and 
J. G. Podington. This committee decided that the 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 485 

main objects of the experiments to be conducted with 
Mrs. Piper should be to encourage the developments 
of certain controls which had already been manifesting 
in her trance. 

" These controls were discarnate intelligences giving 
the names of Henry Sidgwick, Frederick Myers and 
Richard Hodson. 

CHAPTER IX 

" Where and When the Piper Sittings Were Held. 

"Mrs. Piper gave 74 sittings in all. The first 13 
of these were held either at Liverpool or Edgberton, 
under the direction of Sir Oliver Lodge. Then fol- 
lowed 58 sittings in London, Mr. Podington being in 
charge of 35, Mrs. Sidgwick of 19, and Miss Alice 
Johnson of two others. All of the London sittings, 
with the exception of five at Mrs. Piper's flat, took 
place in the smoking room of the Irish Literary So- 
ciety, at No. 20 Hanover Square, which the committee 
had rented for the purpose. 

"At these sittings the investigator in charge was 
present before the trance began and remained until 
Mrs. Piper regained normal consciousness. In no case 
did the investigator enter the seance room or come in 
contact with Mrs. Piper until she was fully entranced, 
and in every case left the room before the end of the 
trance, not to come in contact again with Mrs. Piper 
until the next or some subsequent trance was in prog- 
ress. 

"While Mrs. Piper was producing automatic writ- 



486 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

ing in either Liverpool, Edgberton, or London, five 
other mediums or psychics were being experimented 
with simultaneously at different and distant places. 

"These were Mrs. Verrall, the wife of the noted 
English scholar; her daughter, Miss Helen Verrall; 
Mrs. Thomson, and two ladies known to the British 
Society for Psychical Research under the pseudonyms 
of Mrs. Forbes and Mrs. Holland. Mrs. Thompson's 
participation, however, was cut short by the unexpected 
death of her husband. Most of Mrs. Verrall's writing 
was done either at Cambridge or Matlock Bath, or on 
the train between London and Cambridge. Mrs. Ver- 
rall wrote automatically at other places. Both Mrs. 
and Miss Verrall knew that experiments were being 
made with Mrs. Piper, but Mrs. Holland was in India, 
and throughout the entire series of experiments re- 
mained in absolute ignorance of what was written by 
the other mediums. So, likewise, did Mrs. Piper, 
'unless/ the report says, 'it be that she remembers 
in her normal state things said to her during her 
trances, and even then the evidential value of the re- 
sults would be unaffected, for all she could have learned 
in this way was either that an experiment had been 
successfully accomplished or that it had failed.' 

"The script of Mrs. Verrall and that of Miss Ver- 
rall were sent at first to Mr. Piddington, and then to 
Miss Alice Johnson, a leading member of the British 
Society, who, in every case, noted on the envelope or 
on the script itself the date and hour when it reached 
them. 

" Mrs. Holland's script was sent to Miss Johnson, 
who indorsed each script with the date of its arrival. 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 487 

In all, 120 experiments in cross-correspondence were 
made. 



" The Methods Pursued by Mrs. Piper in France. 

"'The external features of Mrs. Piper's trance,' 
says the report, 'may be briefly described as follows: 
Mrs. Piper sits at a table with a pile of cushions in 
front of her, and composes herself to go into a trance. 
After an interval varying from two to three to ten 
minutes, her head drops on the cushions, with the face 
turned to the left and the eyes closed, her right hand 
falling at the same time on to a small table placed on 
her right side. 

" ' A pencil is put between her fingers, and the hand 
proceeds to write. The writing being done without 
the aid of sight, and the arm in a more or less strained 
position, it is often difficult to decipher, at least with- 
out practice ; but in spite of its not being easy to read, 
it is remarkably consistent in character, so that its pe- 
culiarities once grasped, the correct interpretation of 
all but a very few words is not a matter of conjecture. 

" ' The coming out of the trance is a longer process 
than the going into trance. After the hand has ceased 
to write the medium remains quiescent for a few min- 
utes. She then raises herself slowly, and often with 
difficulty, from the cushions. 

" '* When the body is erect she begins to speak. Her 
utterance at first is usually indistinct, but as she grad- 
ually regains her normal condition it becomes clearer.' 

" All of the sittings which Mrs. Piper gave in Eng- 
land were, with one exception, 'writing,' and not 



488 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

* voice* sittings; that is to say, automatism took the 
form of writing and not of speech, except during the 
waking stage. The * writing ' sittings possess one ad- 
vantage over the voice sittings, namely, that the auto- 
matic phenomena which occur in them by their very 
nature record themselves. 



"Purported Communications Made in Writing. 

"The report declared that the trance script was 
always kept out of Mrs. Piper's sight, and taken away 
at the end of the sitting, so that she never saw it 
or had access to it at any time. In her normal con- 
dition she neither asked for nor received any informa- 
tion whatever about what had happened at the sit- 
tings, except that 6 she was occasionally told that the 
results were considered interesting and promising, and 
that they were of a different nature from what had 
previously been obtained.' 

"At the very beginning of the sittings there came 
correspondence of the most definite character, in the 
production of which there seemed to be the fullest evi- 
dence both of supernormal intelligent direction and in- 
genuity. 

"On January 2, 1907, at 12.30 p. m., Calcutta 
(6.30 a. m. Greenwich time), Mrs. Holland, during a 
trance at Calcutta, automatically wrote a script con- 
taining the names Frances and Ignatius. Some five 
or six hours later, at a sitting in London, Mr. Pid- 
dington asked what purported to be the spirit of 
Myers what were the real names of Mrs. Piper's two 
controls who called themselves ' Imperator' and ' Rec- 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 489 

tor.' Myers, according to Mr. Piddington, spontane- 
ously replied, by the medium of Mrs. Piper's automatic 
writing, that they were Francis and Ignatius. It is 
possible that these coincidences might have been acci- 
dental, but this objection could not be applied by any 
process of reasoning to the results of the sitting of 
January 1, 1907. At this sitting, Mrs. Piper fell into 
her usual trance, and the spirit of Myers purported to 
appear, writing by her hand with his distinct char- 
acteristics and style of chirography. To make a defi- 
nite and unmistakable test, Mr. Piddington asked 
Myers to draw a certain design when giving his mes- 
sages through other mediums. The report describes 
this conversation through Mrs. Piper: 

" ' Piddington — Myers, when you send a message to, 
say, Mrs. Verrall, and then a similar message to Mrs. 
Holland, could you not mark each with some simple 
but distinctive design? 

"'Myers — I am not quite sure that I understand 
you. Do you mean when I give a message to make a 
sign after or before the written message? 

"'Piddington — Yes; if you wrote, for instance, 
" sunshine " through Mrs. Verrall, and then afterward 
through Mrs. Holland you might put, say, a triangle 
within a circle, or some simple design like that, to show 
that there is another message to be looked for corre- 
sponding with the message so marked.' 

" When the investigators received the script of Mrs. 
Verrall's automatic writing they were immensely aston- 
ished and highly gratified to note in it a circle with 
triangle within it distinctly drawn. This script em- 
bodied a cross-correspondence which Sir Oliver Lodge 



490 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

and his associate experimenters at once were forced to 
conclude was undoubtedly successful. Mrs. Verrall's 
drawing was unmistakable. Although one of Mrs. 
Holland's scripts written in far-off India contained 
geometrical drawings in which were a circle and a tri- 
angle, the cross-correspondence in this case was really 
confined to three mediums, Mrs. Verrall, Miss Verrall 
and Mrs. Piper." 

The reader should study this report carefully to 
get a clear understanding of the plan and the test. 
Here it is in a nutshell: Suppose you were making a 
similar test, to prove or disprove the claims of Spirit- 
ualism. You have employed three mediums, placed, 
say, ten miles distant from each other. You are com- 
municating to a purported spirit through one of these 
mediums, and you ask this spirit if he could control 
these other two mediums, now at this time, or as near 
this time as may be, to give a message through them 
with a definite sign placed before, like a triangle within 
a circle. 

He would tell you he thought he could, and it should 
be done within a short space of time. And these me- 
diums, each and all, absolutely ignorant of the whole 
plan. What other verdict could be rendered other than 
the spiritualistic hypothesis? 

This promised account of a public " seance " given 
by Pierre L. O. A. Kleeler, at Lily Dale, N. Y., by 
this co-investigator and townsman, is at hand, and I 
will now give it you just as received from him. 

" On August 19, 1908, I attended a public ' seance 9 
given by Pierre L. O. A. Keeler, in the Library hall, 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 491 

Lily Dale. I went early and selected a seat in the 
second row from the front, and which was about fifteen 
feet from the end of the platform where the ' business ' 
was to be done. The platform was raised about 18 
inches above the floor of the hall. It was in the even- 
ing, and the hall was well lighted with electric lights. 
Fifteen to twenty minutes after my arrival Mr. Keeler 
came, with a man helper, and they had with them a 
slate-colored curtain, a tambourine, a guitar, and a 
few other articles. I watched them put up the curtain 
and arrange the cabinet, all done in plain sight and in 
a good light. The curtain was strung across the cor- 
ner of the room on the stage, the curtain reaching from 
the two walls of the building, and was about eight 
feet in length, and about five feet in height, strung 
tightly by a cord along the top. The cabinet was so 
arranged that no window or other opening came within 
the space of the cabinet. In the cabinet was placed a 
small stand and the guitar upon it; and nothing else 
was in the cabinet. After it was arranged, Mr. Keeler 
invited any who wished to come forward and examine 
it and look inside, which I, among others, did. It was 
very light, and everything could be seen as in daylight. 
He then asked that a man and woman come forward 
from the audience who were strangers to him and to 
each other. Many volunteered. The two that came 
first got the job. These, with Mr. Keeler, were to 
form the battery. Three chairs were arranged in 
front of the curtain, close together, facing the audience 
and equally distant from either end of the curtain. 
At our right sat Mr. Keeler, next him the woman, and 
at her right the man. Mr. Keeler held the left arm 



492 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

of the woman between the shoulder and elbow with his 
right hand, and the wrist of the woman's same arm 
with his left hand, instructing her to tell the audience 
if he relaxed his hold. The man held the woman's right 
arm with his left hand, his right being all the time in 
view. The attendant then placed in front of the sitters 
a second curtain of the same material, arranged so that 
it fitted tightly about the neck of each sitter, extend- 
ing from end to end of the other curtain and to the 
floor, leaving their heads in view. Mr. Keeler then 
asked the man and woman to describe to the audience 
any sensation of feeling which they should experience. 
They did so from time to time. First one, then the 
other, felt something scratching or tapping them on 
the back, shoulder, neck, etc. Mr. Keeler also said he 
was having a similar experience. This grew more and 
more pronounced, until one or another of the sitters 
dodged, saying they had received a hard blow or jolt 
on some part of their person. 

"Mr. Keeler stated that George (meaning George 
Christy, his control or guide) was present, and ad- 
dressing him; he asked him if he could play for them 
on the guitar. Sitting in front of the cabinet and 
five or six feet away was the helper of Mr. Keeler, and 
Mr. Keeler requested him to play softly on the violin 
to help 'George' get started, which was done. The 
guitar in the cabinet was played, faintly at first, but 
gradually grew louder, and when ' George ' seemed to 
get on his job, the attendant ceased to play on the 
violin; but the guitar within the cabinet was played 
loudly and as strong as it could have been played by 
any player. In fact, it at times was played very 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 49S 

strongly and made a very din, and it could be heard 
moving about on the stand, and time struck on the 
frame sometimes as well as on the strings. The guitar 
was thrown violently on the floor; it was picked up 
again and slammed down on the stand; it was thrust 
under each chair in turn, and protruded well out from 
under the curtain in plain view, being played at the 
time. It was rapped down on the heads of the sitters, 
and Keeler was knocked on the head a good smart 
blow. 

" After a time George seemed to tire of the guitar, 
and Mr. Keeler requested his attendant to take the 
guitar, which was handed up over the top of the cur- 
tain, and hand over to 6 George ' in its place the tam- 
bourine. 'George' then performed great stunts on 
that, playing it with split clothespins for drumsticks, 
spinning it about above the curtain on a cane that the 
attendant handed over to him, and finally throwing it 
over the curtain on to the stage-floor violently, to- 
gether with the cane and drumsticks. 

" This ended the first half of the performance. The 
battery was then changed ; a new man and woman were 
called up, c strangers,' as before, and the same arrange- 
ment was made of the sitters. Mr. Keeler then stated 
that * George ' would write messages to various per- 
sons from departed spirits, and the attendant would 
receive them as they were handed over the curtain and 
read only the name signed to the message, and if any 
present recognized it as intended for him or her to 
receive it. A small pencil tablet and pencil were then 
handed over the curtain and received at the top. The 
electric light nearest the curtain was turned off; this 



494 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

left the curtain fairly lighted, so that everything could 
be readily and plainly seen, as there were six or more 
electric lights remaining in the room. Mr. Keeler 
stated that it was necessary that he should have a 
subdued light in order to get the best results from 
message writing. When all was ready, the writing on 
the stand in the cabinet began. From where I sat I 
could clearly hear the pencil writing on the tablet, 
which evidently lay upon the table. The writing was 
very rapid and the hand seemed to run very strong; 
I could hear the leaf torn from the tablet. As these 
were written and torn off, they were handed up over 
the top of the curtain and the attendant took them 
and read the name signed, and someone in the audience 
would arise and say, 'That is for me.' From forty 
to fifty messages were thus handed over the curtain, 
and all were claimed but two or three, and no owners 
could be found for those. When the several messages 
were handed up over the curtain I often saw part of 
a hand as it tendered the message. These were handed 
up usually between the heads of the man and woman, 
sometimes at the right of the man. If it was the 
hand of Mr. Keeler, his arm must have been stretched 
out five or six feet in length; and, then, the woman 
said he did not relax his hold on her arm. And I 
watched him closely; he sat erect, quietly, and seemed 
to make no move or effort. Then a hand came out 
through the curtain, sometimes one side of the man's 
head, sometimes on the other, never near Mr. Keeler. 
This hand was clearly seen up to one or two inches on 
the wrist. It seemed to beckon to some person, and 
Mr. Keeler requested the person indicated to come up 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 495 

and allow the hand to write a message. One by one 
many came up from the audience, held a tablet in 
position, placed a pencil in the hand, and the hand 
wrote a message. It would then lay the pencil down 
on the tablet and shake hands with the person and 
withdraw. This hand appeared to be the hand of a 
large man, about such a proportioned hand as Mr. 
Keeler's, but it was impossible that Mr. Keeler could 
reach the required distance with his natural arm to 
the point where this hand appeared. This hand looked 
from where I sat rather clammy and lifeless, and ap- 
peared sometimes to move with uncertainty, and I 
thought a few times it was an imperfect hand, lacking 
a portion of a finger or more. 

"After this, Mr. Keeler requested any who wished 
to come up to the curtain and look in and have 
' George ' play for them on the guitar, which had been 
handed over the curtain. They did so, coming up one 
at a time and looking over the corner of the curtain 
at the right of the man, which was the corner nearest 
the audience. c It ' played for many, for some faintly, 
for some quite loudly; for one woman who sat directly 
in front of me, it played well for her while she was look- 
ing over the curtain, the guitar being raised as it was 
played from the table to the top of the curtain. She 
told me she saw nothing except the stand and the 
guitar, and saw the guitar lifted from the table, but 
could see nothing that lifted it. I went up and looked 
into the cabinet and asked ' him * to play for me, but 
there was not a sound. I fancied * he ' did not 
like me. There were others that 'he' would not play 
for. 



496 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

" When this had ended, there was a garment thrown 
violently over the curtain on to the stage. Just at 
the instant Mr. Keeler seemed to dodge his head, and 
as the garment came over the curtain, Mr. Keeler said, 
' There, " he " has taken off my coat.' And it proved 
to be Mr. Keeler's coat. 

"After the writings on the tablets, at Mr. Keeler's 
request someone handed over a white handkerchief, 
which was thrust back through the curtain; it was 
then hung on the top of the curtain, and the corner 
outside of the curtain pulled through the curtain very 
slowly, drawing the entire handkerchief through. Mr. 
Keeler, before the seance began and while putting up 
the curtain, explained that there were no apertures in 
the curtain, and after it was up, several went up and 
examined it very closely and said there were no holes 
or apertures in it. At the close of the seance many 
went up and looked everything over, and I, with others, 
waited and saw Mr. Keeler and his helper take down 
the curtain, bundle them and go home. But I saw no 
more of 'George Christy.' I received no message at 
this seance. 

"I do not undertake to explain or account for any- 
thing. I only tell what I saw and heard." 



CHAPTER X 

My conservative friend does not deem it wise to offer 
an opinion upon this phenomena he witnessed. He 
gives the facts and leaves the reader to draw his own 
conclusions. I knew a man in this town who, a few 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 497 

years ago, was enjoying the belief of scientific mate- 
rialism, and believed at death he was going to have a 
sweet night's rest co-eternal with eternity itself. I in- 
vited this man to look into the subject of Modern 
Spiritualism and see what the effect might be. 

With investigation, be it more or less, there must be 
an awakening of thought; and whether an opinion is 
expressed or not, there must, from the very nature of 
the case, be an opinion in regard to the manifesta- 
tions witnessed, and these opinions must ripen into 
conclusions sooner or later, either for or against the 
claims set forth. I am speaking of those who are 
alive, not to the apathetic class whose minds do not 
seem to be awakened to a degree to receive impres- 
sions. 

This man I considered among the former, and after 
a course of time, after he had given this new subject 
(new to him) some thought, and had read some of 
the works of those who had probed the subject and 
declared there was no other rational solution but the 
spiritualistic. 

Not long since, in conversation with him, I asked 
him what conclusion he had arrived at in regard to 
Spiritualism; while he did not avow a firm belief en- 
tirely free from doubt, but he allowed that he believed 
it. Well, said I, the question about belief is vested 
in this: Which is the most enjoyable, and how does 
your enjoyment compare with your former belief, 
" that death ended all " ? His reply was that he en- 
joyed himself better as he now believed. This is im- 
portant. While our belief does not affect the plans 
or purposes of the Almighty, 



498 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

"Yet he has given us in this dark estate 
To know the good from ill, 
And binding nature fast in fate 
Left free the human will." 

We are free to believe as we will, but the paths 
of wisdom have been declared the most enjoyable by 
all the sages of the past to tread, and "wisdom" and 
" truth " must forever be one and inseparable. Have 
we not, then, a right to premise that demonstrated 
truth is the most enjoyable thing that humanity can 
attain to? And I will add that the claims of theology 
are no more satisfying to reason than is bald mate- 
rialism. 

I will now give you the promised communication 
from my wife's old friend, A. J. Yeomans, now in 
spirit-life : 

" Greeting to you, my dear friend, and your worthy 
husband. I never was a very great scribe, but in de- 
fense of Spiritualism I am awake and alive and endorse 
it every time, as the only safe religion, if you will call 
it so, for it takes the sting from death, and opens up 
an avenue between the two worlds, with the assurance 
that man shall live again after the turmoil and cares 
of this life are over. What a glorious light after to- 
tal darkness ! I have been a student in this life, look- 
ing into this affair of this great question of the im- 
mortality of the soul after its transition. How won- 
derful to me, yet after my arrival on this plane, how 
false I found what I had been taught to believe from 
my childhood! I know, my dear friend, you were al- 






PROGRESSIVE AGE OP REASON 499 

ways thoughtful for one of your years : Tell your hus- 
band to finish his book; in its pages give all the tests 
he can muster, for it will be more convincing and will 
take and benefit mankind. The world needs something 
it has never had yet. I cannot give you anything 
more convincing than you already have got. I will tell 
you one thing: Be harmonious, keep level-headed, and 
I hope to meet you and all the old-time friends on this 
plane. This may be a little disjointed. Wishing you 
good luck and success in your earth-life, and in the 
publishing of so good a work as your volume will be 
for the good of misguided man, again I will bid you 
good-night. 

[Signed] "A. J. Yeomans." 

I now feel impressed to give you an account of a 
seance with the Fox Sisters, in commemoration of the 
fifty-ninth anniversary of Modern Spiritualism: 

"For the benefit of the hosts of Spiritualists who 
are not so situated that they can see or personally 
participate in materializing seances, I wish to make 
record of the celebration of the 59th anniversary of 
the Fox sisters, at Mrs. C. M. Sawyer's, 3003 Dixon 
Street, St. Louis, Mo. For many years Mrs. Sawyer 
has celebrated the Fox sisters' anniversary, or the an- 
niversary of Modern Spiritualism, if you prefer, by 
night, the 31st of March, this year, was no exception 
giving a seance in honor of its foundation, and Sunday 
to the rule. 

"About twenty-five composed the circle, and while 
there were many beautiful manifestations to the vari- 



500 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

ous sitters, all accorded in heart and mind, the privi- 
leges and honors of the occasion to the three sisters 
who, at Hydesville, N. Y., fifty-nine years ago, gave 
heed to the little raps which have since resounded 
around the world, and reached the intelligence of hu- 
manity throughout the universe, wherever the men- 
tality of men and women was ready to receive the mes- 
sage. Those on the spirit side of life having found 
a way to reach man on the earth-plane, and give him 
intelligible communication, commencing with the raps 
to which the Fox sisters responded, it is merely stat- 
ing a truth to say that similar raps are now listened 
to and welcomed in thousands of homes, while all the 
phases of mediumship, up to the most wonderful of 
all — that of materialization — are constantly attract- 
ing an ever-increasing number of people. True Spir- 
itualists need not be ashamed of their company, as 
many of the brightest minds of the world are avowed 
Spiritualists. Among those who have given spirit 
phenomena a most searching scientific inquiry, for the 
purpose of satisfying themselves as to whether what 
is claimed is true or not, may be mentioned Professor 
Crooks, England's foremost chemist; Bishop Colby, 
of the Church of England ; Lombroso, the Italian, and 
the greatest criminologist of the age ; Flammarion, the 
leading French astronomer, not to mention thousands 
who have made no * noise ' in the world, but whose in- 
vestigations have brought to them the knowledge that 
under proper conditions those who have passed through 
the gate of death may and do return to those still in 
the mortal form. 

"After the usual preliminaries, followed by half a 






PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 501 

dozen materializations, Elon, the cabinet control, ad- 
dressed the circle, saying: 'Friends, I am very pleased 
to be with you here to-night. A year ago to-night I 
met some of you now present to celebrate this 59th 
anniversary of the raps heard by the little Fox sisters 
at Hydesville, N. Y. The name of the spirit was given 
through the simple means of the alphabet. ... I 
now take great pleasure in introducing to you Mar- 
garet Fox Kane.' 

"The curtains w,ere pushed aside and a form ar- 
rayed in celestial white stepped out slowly ; she crossed 
the room to where I was sitting and took my, hand. 
I gave her welcome, and as she shook hands with Mr. 
Parker she said : e I was only eight years old when 
we first heard the raps at our home at Hydesville. , 
The circle applauded and thanked her for the visit, 
whereupon she retired to the cabinet. Elon requested 
me to step up to the cabinet, as he wished her to come 
out again. When she appeared, she took both my 
hands in hers and dematerialized in full view of the 
circle. 

"After this, 'Maudie,' the cabinet messenger, re- 
lated an amusing circumstance of a lady calling on 
Mrs. Sawyer a few days previously, who said she had 
been a Spiritualist for over forty years. Mrs. Sawyer 
spoke with pride of the Fox sisters as instruments in 
the founding of Modern Spiritualism. The visiting 
lady (although a Spiritualist for forty years) wanted 
to know who were the Fox sisters. 

" Leah Fox Underhill was the next one of the sisters 
to materialize. She also honored me by coming 
straight across to where I was sitting and offering her 



502 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

hand I arose, and as we moved back toward the cab- 
inet she informed the circle that ' she was thirty when 
her two younger sisters began this great work, and 
being at home less than they, did not have so much 
to do with it as Margaret and Kate.' 

"After Leah returned to the cabinet, Maudie re- 
quested me to come to the door. When I approached 
Leah held out her hands, and drawing me near, whis- 
pered a very gratifying message in my ear, a mem- 
orandum of which is incorporated in my notes of the 
evening, and to which I hope I shall have occasion to 
refer in a letter to your paper at some time in the 
future — perhaps some years hence. I do not feel that 
it would be proper to now say just what the message 
was, but I do want this recorded reference to it for 
future citation. It may mean far more than anyone 
can now guess. Leah also dematerialized, after meet- 
ing Mr. Davis and a few others. 

"When Kate Fox Jenkins appeared, she was gor- 
Igeously costumed, and wore a crescent on her head and 
a large cross and two stars on her breast. It has been 
my pleasure to meet this martyr to the cause of Spir- 
itualism in most of the circles I have attended at Mrs. 
Sawyer's. When she comes she is a beautiful exempli- 
fication of what the spirit power of the cabinet is ca- 
pable of doing; yet I have never seen her more strong 
and beautiful than she was on this occasion. She also 
dematerialized outside the cabinet. 

" No doubt each one in the circle noted the difference 
in the size of the three sisters, Leah being the largest, 
while Kate was the smallest, the difference being suf- 
ficiently marked to be quickly noted. 



I 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 503 

"Besides many messages from the cabinet to those 
present, a large number of materializations took place, 
including Nana, to Mr. Parker; daughter of Captain 
Spohr to her father j Emma to Mr. Becker; Mrs. Men- 
zimer to her husband and other members of her fam- 
ily; Minnie, another daughter of Captain Spohr, to 
her father; Mary to Mr. and Mrs. Kerr; Mrs. Menzi- 
mer again, with striking beautiful breastplate design 
of poppies and two stars and crown ; Charlotte Temple 
with bouquet, which she always brings — on this occa- 
sion left in the hands of Mrs. Davis, when it slowly 
dematerialized ; Niesis to Professor Falder ; George to 
Mrs. Townsend. Mrs. Oglesby and family kept time 
on mandolin while circle sang c Abide with Me ' ; Wil- 
liam Henry Garvin, who said, 'I am Aileen's brother, 
and I want to speak to Frank.' When I went to the 
cabinet he stood in the door, gave his message, and 
emphatically confirmed what I had heard from Leah 
Fox earlier in the evening. He reached over the heads 
of those in the first row of chairs to shake hands with 
Mr. Parker, and as he did so, said, ' Shake, old boy ! ' 
Maudie, speaking from the cabinet, said, ' There is no 
imagination about that.' 

" There were many other manifestations during the 
evening, but lest I trespass upon space I will not at- 
tempt to mention them all. The seance was a great 
success, and we hope that we may have the pleasure 
of a similar occasion March 31, 1908 — and many suc- 
ceeding years — at Mrs. Sawyer's. 

"F. L. Robinson, 
" 4667 Evens Avenue. 

" St. Louis, Mo., April 3, 1907." 



604 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

I will now give an account of a series of seances 
given under the auspices of Dr. Isaac K. Funk. Mr. 
Funk, as you will observe, is a hard man to convert, 
and what he has given to the world under the head of 
spiritual phenomena has had to pass through all kinds 
of fire, and then be scrutinized with all of the different 
" rays " that have received an alphabetic prefix. 

This made this account valuable to me, for of all the 
things I despise on the face of this earth, is trying to 
deceive in matters relating to Religion; and Spiritual- 
ism, since it teaches and claims to prove what it 
teaches (a continued existence) a thing that the ortho- 
dox churches have been blindly groping after. There- 
fore, I consider Spiritualism a religion (demonstrated). 
Some firm believers claim that Spiritualism is not prop- 
erly a|religion. Religion signifies a rebinding; and to 
those'who have been bound by orthodox ligatures and by 
^materialistic, and have unwrapped themselves from 
these and religatured themselves with the Spiritualistic 
belief, I claim are entitled to the name "Religion." 

I am indebted and all who may be interested in this 
account, are indebted to Mr. Funk, for it is apparent, 
the pains he has taken and the expense he has been to 
in getting these seance accounts with this medium Mrs. 
French for what are known as " Independent Voices." 

"What are known in spiritualistic parlance as inde- 
pendent voices are a startling class of phenomena — 
hard to believe as are those of materialization. 

What is an independent voice? 

By this name the spiritualist usually means that the 
spirit entity organizes a set of vocal organs indepen- 
dent of the medium's body, and talks through these 




PROGRESSIVE AGE OP REASON 505 < 

organs. A heavy draft this, on credulity, for it asks us 
to believe that there is extemporized out of hand in the 
seance room a human throat, larynx, vocal cords, pal- 
ate, tongue, teeth, lips, and lungs, — or something 
equivalent to them — all this in a few minutes of time. 

" Immensely absurd," of course, nine out of ten aver- 
age readers will exclaim. 

"Can we believe it? That is not the question. The 
question to be settled is, is it a fact? If a fact, that 
settles it; but so strange a fact must be supported by 
proof of an incontestable sort. If a fact, we must 
accept it, and then account for how and when we can." 

"In the early part of 1905 I received a letter frora^ 
a prominent lawyer in Buffalo, N. Y. — Mr. E. C. R* 
dall, head of the firm of Randall, Hurley, and Porter, 
requesting that I investigate * A remarkable meflium ' 
of his acquaintance, by the name of Emily S. French, 
through whom come independent voices and for whose/^ 
honesty he would vouch. Said he, ' About fourteen ^^ 
years ago I became acquainted with this woman. I 
was sure her phenomena were the result of fraud, and 
I determined to expose it. After many sittings and 
exacting experiments I became convinced that they 
were genuine, and finally, at the suggestion of the 
spirit intelligences, I had fitted up a seance-room in 
my own house in which my wife, the medium, and myself 
held seances, and we have done this now for more than 
a dozen years. I have tested Mrs. French in every way 
I can think of, and am thoroughly convinced that the 
phenomena are what they claim to be. The talks are 
often exceedingly instructive, and I have had many of 
them taken down in shorthand. I wish you would do 



v 



506 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

me and others here the favor to investigate thoroughly 
these manifestations, and I would be very glad to have 
you visit us and remain as long as you desire at my 
house for this purpose. Every facility for thorough 
scientific investigation will be granted you. Rest as- 
sured you will find the phenomena exactly what I tell 
you they are.' 

" About the same time I received an urgent letter 
from an editor of one of the leading dailies in the west- 
ern part of the State urging a ' scientific investiga- 
tion of some extraordinary psychic phenomena that 
came through a Mrs. French, and which are perplexing 
some of our best minds. The phenomena are much out 
of the ordinary, and the medium is not a public medium 
who exhibits for pay." 

Shortly after this correspondence, Mr. A. W. 
Moore, the secretary of the Rochester Art Club, wrote 
to me as follows — I quote very fully from his letter as 
its story is interestingly told: (I will quote it as given 
for the same reason). 

"My attention was called to Mrs. French's phase 
of mediumship about twenty years ago, when I was 
on the editorial staff of the ' Union and Advertiser,' 
Rochester, N. Y. At that time I was not only an 
unbeliever in spiritual manifestation, but prejudiced 
against it, believing it nothing but fraud. In report- 
ing it to the press I always treated mediumship with 
ridicule and sarcasm. 

" One summer's day I had occasion to visit Hemlock 
Lake, and there met by chance J. Nelson Tubbs, the 
well known civil engineer, and now Inspector of the 
Erie Canal. Our conversation drifted into Spiritual- 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 507 

ism, which I so firmly discountenanced and ridiculed 
that he asked me when, where, and how long I had in- 
vestigated the subject. I had to confess that I had 
really investigated the subject very slightly. He 
pointed out the inconsistency of my condemning medi- 
umship and taking such strong grounds against it 
without ever having taken the trouble to examine into 
the subject, and he warned me to be careful in writing 
about it until I got better posted. Mr. Tubbs then 
gave me an account of his investigations car- 
ried on during a series of years, which resulted in his 
being a firm believer in spirit-return. He gave an ac- 
count of his experiences with various mediums, and 
particularly the phase of manifestation peculiar to Mrs. 
French, viz.: Independent voices. He advised me to 
have a talk with Judge Dean Shuart of Rochester, who 
was for many years Judge of the Surrogate Court of 
Monroe County. * The fact that two such level-headed 
men — one an eminent civil engineer and mathemati- 
cian, demanding " weight and measure " in his profes- 
sion ; the other, a learned jurist and a man of such unim- 
peachable character, that he had been repeatedly elected 
to the responsible office of Surrogate Judge — had pro- 
fessed their full belief in Spiritualism, caused me to 
reflect deeply. I, therefore, on my return home, 
sought out Judge Shuart, and that gentleman told me 
many things that set me to thinking. He spoke of 
Mrs. French, and arranged for me to attend a private 
seance at the house of a mutual friend. 

" In the meantime, with a newspaper man's soul, I 
found out something about the lady's antecedents. She 
belongs to the American branch of the Pierrepont 



508 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

family, the head of which is the Earl of Manners, whose 
principal estate is at Holme Pierrepont, Nottingham- 
shire, England. I borrowed a book giving the history 
of the American branch, in which there is a list of the 
members of the family then living in the United States. 
In the list I found the name of the late Judge Pierre- 
pont, one time minister to the Court of St. James, 
London, and at the very end, I found the names of Mrs. 
Emily S. French, and her only child, Mrs. D. Oberst. 

"Mrs. French is the widow of the late Lieutenant 
French, of the United States Volunteers, who lost his 
life during the War of the Rebellion. She draws the 
pension of an officer's widow. For many years she 
has made her home with her daughter, and her chief 
pleasure in life is administering to the comfort and 
education of her grandchildren. She is a lady of re- 
finement, and possesses the charming, unassuming, and 
gentle manners of a well-born race. 

"With this information I attended a seance as ar- 
ranged by Judge Shuart. There were present, besides 
my wife and myself, Mr. and Mrs. Austin (our hosts), 
and Judge Shuart and one or two others. We met in 
a small room upstairs, and after being seated and tak- 
ing hold of hands in a circle, the light was extinguished. 
It was explained to me that it was absolutely neces- 
sary that not the slightest trace of light be allowed to 
enter the room. Judge Shuart asked all present to 
sing, saying that vibrations were necessary. We there- 
fore sang several familiar songs and afterwards talked 
on various subjects, when all at once, a voice, loud and 
sonorous, high above our heads exclaimed : * I greet you 
my friends ! ' The suddenness of the voice startled all 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 509 

present into silence, and the speaker continued to 
talk. After continuing for a while, the voice said : * Ask 
any questions you may wish, and I will answer them to 
the best of my ability.' I asked, ' What is your name ? ' 
The answer came 6 1 was known as Red Jacket when in 
the mortal.' I then asked him to describe conditions in 
the spirit-world and the passing of the spirit out of 
the body. In reply, Red Jacket gave a long talk on his 
own experience. He said at the time of his passing out 
he was in a very low spiritual condition, due to the 
excessive use of fire-water, which the white man had 
taught him to indulge in, and also of his intense hatred 
of the c palefaces ' on account of their having robbed 
his people of their hunting-grounds, etc. He then de- 
scribed some of the ordeals his spirit had to undergo in 
order to overcome the desire for strong drink, which 
still clung to him, and to turn his hatred of the white 
man into love. 

"I can merely touch upon my experience at this 
seance. Other voices came, male and female. My 
impression at the close of the seance was that the whole 
thing was an imposture, and I determined to find it 
out somehow. I told Judge Shuart frankly that the 
voices were made by some living person, and that if he 
would examine the cellar of the house he would find 
leading from thence to the room. The Judge immedi- 
ately requested me to go with him into the cellar, a 
damp, low-ceilinged place, full of cobwebs, but we saw 
not the slightest indication of a speaking-tube. I then 
fell back on ventriloquism, and accused Mr. Austin of 
doing the business. 

"To all of this Judge Shuart listened kindly, and 



510 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

suggested that I follow up my investigations until I 
had discovered the fraud. * If there is a fraud in Mrs. 
French's circles,' the Judge said, * I would like to know 
it, because my time is too precious to waste by attend- 
ing these seances.' Continuing, he said, 'I have been 
sitting with Mrs. French from time to time for the past 
five years and tested her in every possible way that my 
mind could suggest, but I have never discovered the 
slightest trace of fraud. My friend, you will if you 
continue your investigations, be compelled to acknowl- 
edge that Mrs. French's voices are occasioned by a 
power beyond the material, and the only conclusion you 
can arrive at is that they are, as they claim to be, 
Spiritual.* 

" To be brief I will say I attended another seance 
at the house of Mr. Austin, with the full conviction 
that I would be able to detect Mr. Austin as the ven- 
triloquist. But on arriving at the house I found that 
he had been telegraphed for by his son, who was mayor 
of a town in Colorado. Consequently, the seance took 
place without the presence of the man I suspected. 

" The voices came as usual and stronger than on the 
previous occasion. I was placed next to Mrs. French 
in the circle, and took hold of her left hand, her other 
hand being taken by Judge Shuart. When the voices 
came, Mrs. French placed her mouth on the back of 
my hand until the spirits ceased talking. While Red 
Jacket delivered an address, his voice suddenly seemed 
to die out like the notes of an organ when the wind 
fails, and he exclaimed, * Sing!' When his voice came 
again he explained that the cause of his voice failing 
was lack of vibrations, and he entered upon a discourse 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 511 

regarding the wonderful atmospheres, electrical con- 
ditions, ethers, and vibratory forces of which mortals 
were quite ignorant, that formed the conditions that 
enabled spirits to throw their voices into our atmos- 
phere. At the conclusion of this seance I was just as 
skeptical as ever, and still more determined to fathom 
the mystery of the voices. 

" I went again and again to the seances held by Mrs. 
French, and I took with me one of the chief skeptics 
in the city, Mr. J. McCall, who denounced the whole 
proceeding as a fraud, but he failed to point it out. 
His vehement denunciation of Mrs. French aroused me 
to protest, and I said, surely before you are so loud in 
your condemnation, you ought to point out where the 
voices came from. 'The fact is,' I said, 'I am begin- 
ning to think that they may be spirit-voices, because 
I have exhausted every device for detecting fraud, and 
failed.' * Did you ever have Mrs. French give a seance 
at your own house?' asked Mr. McCall. 'No,' said I. 
Then replied he, 'if you can get her to produce the 
voices in your house, you will find, if she accepts the 
invitation, that the thing won't work. I asked Mrs. 
French if she would come to my house. She replied 
that nothing would give her greater pleasure. A few 
days afterward, Mr. McCall and wife were at our house 
and I suggested that it would be a good opportunity 
to have Mrs. French over. I walked to her house, a 
short distance away, and brought her back with me. 
We sat in my study, and there were present on the 
occasion Mr. and Mrs. McCall, a nephew of mine just 
arrived from England, my wife, and myself. We had 
no sooner turned out the light when Red Jacket said in 



512 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

the loudest tones I had yet heard: 'You see, brother 
Moore, I can come to you even in your own house ! ' 
He then went on to describe the work he was doing as 
a missionary spirit. It took him a long time, he said, 
to outgrow earth conditions and appetites, in order 
that he might try and undo many things he had done 
in the flesh. His great anxiety was to come and return 
good for evil among those whom he called the pale- 
faces. He was happy when he attracted the attention 
of the white men so that he could teach them something 
of spiritual law. He said the spirits are working very 
hard to bring about conditions by which there can be 
an intercommunication between the two worlds, and the 
time is coming, said Red Jacket, when materialized 
spirits would appear upon platforms and address large 
audiences. The reason that Indian spirits took a large 
part in spiritual manifestations is because America 
was their hunting-ground, and the red men lived close 
to Nature and were thus tremendously magnetic. 

"Well, in brief, the seance was most wonderful; not 
only did Red Jacket come with great power, but several 
other spirits who spoke on different topics. 

"The result of this seance was, that Mr. McCall 
shook hands with me and said, 'Moore, I believe the 
voices are spiritual.' From that date Mr. McCall be- 
came a thorough believer and prominent in Spiritual- 
istic circles." 

" Here is a part of Mr. Moore's letter that Interested 
me very much. 

" Since that period I have attended so many of Mrs. 
French's circles that it would be impossible to give in 
letter the many wonderful communications I have had. 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 513 

... I think I can say that I have attended in the 
neighborhood of one thousand of Mrs. French's seances 
in the last twenty years. 

" I have learned enough wisdom from the old Seneca 
Sachem Red Jacket regarding spiritual things to fill 
a large volume. His sermons are at times full of pathos 
and beauty, and I have known the circle to be brought 
to tears by his eloquence. He lays great stress on the 
necessity of living lives of purity, temperance, and 
benevolence. 

" He admonishes us especially to be charitable to- 
ward those who oppose the spiritual philosophy and 
cling tenaciously to dogmatic theology. He tells us 
not to try and convert people, but by our example and 
words draw them to inquire into that which gives 
blessings and peace to us. 

" I might add many things to this testimony regard- 
ing Mrs. French, whom I believe to be a most honor- 
able and trustworthy lady, who would scorn to do a 
dishonest thing, and would never for one moment give 
herself over to fraud and deceit. The fact is she does 
not have to, as her manifestations are among the most 
wonderful and instructive to be found in the world 
to-day. 

(Signed) "A. W. Moore. 



CHAPTER XI 

"Mr. Moore in his correspondence again and again 
urged that I undertake a serious investigation of the 
psychic phenomena as manifested through Mrs. French. 



5U PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

Earnest as were these and other urgings, I said 6 No ! ? 
having so often been led on wild goose chases in hunt- 
ing up phenomena of this class and classes similar to it ; 
and besides I long since had made up my mind to ac- 
cept no phenomena as genuine when the conditions 
were not wholly under my control, and these it seemed 
would not be, especially as they were produced in the 
dark." 

Finally, I was visited in my New York office by a 
lawyer from Rochester, a man whose integrity and level- 
headedness are nowhere questioned and who is a lawyer 
of State-wide reputation. He came to urge me to the 
same investigation. He told me that he also had known 
Mrs. French for many years, and had visited her sit- 
tings very many times within the past five years ; that 
his partner, now dead, who was also a prominent lawyer 
and a judge, was thoroughly convinced of her honesty, 
and was convinced that the phenomena was of spirit 
origin ; he declared that he himself was not a Spiritual- 
ist, and hence did not wish his name mentioned in con- 
nection with the matter (Is not this enough to awaken 
a significant smile? That Spiritualism has to be kept 
skulking; even prominent men who profess to believe, 
seem to think that their belief must be kept "under 
the rose "'; and for what reason? The same that Nich- 
odemus would have given, had he have been asked why 
he visited Christ at dead of night. Unpopular.) and 
finally suggested that he should try to induce this aged 
woman to come to New York for two weeks, and to be 
wholly under my direction, for the most thorough in- 
vestigation that I would care to make. He said it 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 515 

would be best, however, for him to send with her a lady 
friend of his, as Mrs. French was now over seventy 
years of age, and was exceedingly feeble, being afflicted 
with heart trouble which made it unsafe for her to 
travel alone. He assured me that she gave no sittings 
for pay, that she was a refined, well-bred woman, a 
delicate lady in every sense of the word, and that the 
friend whom he would send with her as her escort was 
one that he had known for nearly a quarter of a cen- 
tury, and for whom he would vouch in the strongest 
possible way. 

I finally assented, and the conditions agreed upon 
were as follows: 

1st. No one was to come with Mrs. French except 
the one lady escort. 

2nd. Both ladies §hould stop at the home that I 
designated. 

3rd. That the sittings should be at such house as I 
would make known to them after their arrival in New 
York, and this house was not to be visited by the 
medium or her friend except during our sittings, nor 
by any person representing them. 

4th. Both women were to follow my directions ab- 
solutely while in New York City. 

These terms were accepted cheerfully. 

The unconditional acceptance of the requirements 
made of the series of tests a very interesting case. 

In the first place there was nothing doubtful in the 
history of the medium. The testimony from those who 
knew showed that she was most highly respected, that 
she had in her favor the verdict of the jury of the 
vicinage where she had lived over three score years. 



516 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

This rightly counts for much in one's favor. Among 
those of whom I have since inquired concerning her 
history are many who have known her for many years, 
all at least five years, and one, a man, who had been 
acquainted with her for over sixty years. She has 
come of good stock, and that is also an element that 
counts; she is a Pierrepont, one of the most noted 
families of the State of New York; in short, she is 
what the old-fashioned novelists would call high or 
lady-bred. Those of whom I have inquired — several 
of whom are not Spiritualists — are unanimous in tell- 
ing me that they regard her as a person incapable of 
deception or falsehood. 

But in the acceptance of so uncommon a phenomena 
as that of independent voices, our proof should be of a 
sort that does not depend at all on the honesty of the 
medium. People of good reputation, even " Sunday- 
school men " have been known to lie. Proof that meas- 
ures up to the standard required must be of a kind that 
implies an absurdity to suppose the phenomenon is not 
what is claimed for it. 

Still it was a satisfaction to have, for testing, a 
medium with an unblemished reputation, and to have 
for point two — a seance-room that made trap-doors 
and confederates impossibilities. A close friend of 
mine, a wealthy business man in New York, whom I 
have known for over thirty years, consented to permit 
me to use a room in his family apartment for this 
series of seances. It would be difficult to conceive a 
better room for this purpose. The windows of the 
apartment are so arranged that they all open out about 
fifty feet above the surface of the ground. It is en- 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 517 

tered by two doors, one from the hall which leads to 
the elevator, and the other from a fire-escape. The 
latter at all of our sittings was locked and chained from 
the inside, and in addition a heavy trunk rested against 
the door. The hall door was also locked from the in- 
side. At several of the series of sittings I kept the key 
of this door in my pocket during the entire time. The 
persons at the seances were this friend, whom we will 
call Mr. Z., his wife and daughter, and myself, the 
medium and her escort — these comprised all of the 
persons who were in the apartment ; not a servant, not 
even an animal pet of any kind was allowed in the 
apartment during the sittings, except on two occa- 
sions. Once we invited an outside friend, and once a 
friend and his wife. 

Mrs. Z has often investigated Spiritualistic phenom- 
ena with me during the last twenty years. 

I trust my readers will pardon me for digressing at 
this point a moment in reply to certain critics. 

Again and again Spiritualists lose patience with me, 
one saying very vigorously that I am not a medium 
and hence can not be competent to judge of medium- 
ship. The conclusion may be sound, but it is a non- 
sequitur. I believe that I am better fitted to pass 
judgment on mediumship than a medium can possibly 
be, who is always supersensitive and often in a trance. 
John B. Finch used to say " I can not lay an egg, but 
I am a better judge whether an egg is_^good or bad 
than all the hens in the country." 

J. R. Francis, the editor of the Progressive Thinker, 
a Spiritualist paper published in Chicago, has done 
more — I am sure I am well within bounds in saying it 



518 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

— to free Spiritualism from fraud than any other man 
in America. Mr. Francis has been pleased in writing 
recently to declare that he regards me as "An ideal 
investigator in psychic phenomena," and that he re- 
gards my methods as being exact and far-reaching, and 
altogether fair. I think it well to say these things at 
this point so as to help lead my readers to free their 
minds as far as possible from all prepossession against 
my testimony concerning the extraordinary facts I 
record in the following pages. 

THE TESTING OF INDEPENDENT 
VOICES 

first sitting (Monday, May 29, 1905) 

Mrs. French and her escort, Mrs. Blank, arrived in 
New York on Monday evening, May 29, 1905, at about 
6 o'clock p. m. At 7.30 they were escorted from the 
boarding-house by Miss Z to the apartment which I 
had selected for the seances. The room of the parlor 
had been fitted up by Mr. Z as a seance-room, simply 
'by arranging the one window to the room so as to 
exclude the outside light. The size of this room is 
about twelve feet square. We were seated in a semi- 
circle around a small table in the order indicated on 
the diagram. 

It was decided that our series of sittings should be 
held in the evenings, beginning promptly at 7.30 o'clock 
and that the sittings were to be strictly private. 

I dislike the condition of absolute darkness in the 
production of psychic phenomena, as it immensely in- 
creases the difficulty of making absolute tests. 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 519 

I asked a "Control M at one of our earlier meetings 
the reason why they could not produce their phenomena 
without darkness. The answer was "The nature of 
the phenomena and the physical condition of the 
medium make any other course impossible. Were the 
medium in good health we might carefully experiment 
hut now we cannot. To try it would be fatal to the 
medium. We understand your wishes and the reason 
for them, but you must believe us when we tell you 
that you ask what is impossible." This, of course, 
proved nothing, nor did it help us over the difficulty; 
yet, it is true, of course, that light has a certain dyna- 
mic power. Every second, millions of light waves 
strike blows where they are admitted, and there are 
processes in nature from which it must be excluded. 
As has often been said, the prenatal child matures in 
absolute darkness, and light must be excluded from the 
photographic plate. 

Electrical Engineer W. W. Bradford of the Marconi 
Wireless Telegraph Company, wrote me, under date of 
May 23, 1906, that light at times has been found a 
serious detriment in wireless telegraphy. This fact was 
first noticed on the occasion of a " voyage made by M. 
Marconi on the SS. Philadelphia, when he observed 
that at 500 miles from our station at Poldhu, Corn- 
wall, England, signals received in the day were not 
appreciably weaker than those received the night be- 
fore at about 350 miles. So on, however, as the dis- 
tance exceeded 700 miles, no signals were received dur- 
ing the day, although at night they remained clearly 
perceptible up to a distance of 2,000 miles." 

Prof. Charles Richet, in his address published in the 



520 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

January (1905) number of the Aerials of Psychic 
Science, says, "Moreover, there is nothing unreason- 
able in the admission that light may exercise an in- 
hibitory effect upon certain kinds of phenomena. It 
is often alleged: Darkness is required by spirits only 
because all kinds of trickery are possible in the dark, 
but this conclusion is absurd." Pp. 28, 29, Richet 
further holds that if careful precautions are taken " it 
is rather foolish to consider worthless all experiments 
made in the dark." 

Absolute darkness calls for special care, but this 
is not a sufficient reason to refuse to investigate. 

This evening before we entered the seance room we 
observed that Mrs. French was exceedingly deaf, so 
deaf in fact, that it was difficult to make her hear in 
conversation, except the voice was considerably raised, 
and this even when we were removed from her not more 
than three feet. This fact became an important one 
in our testings, and hence afterward I sought for full- 
est confirmation of her deafness by correspondence with 
several physicians who have attended her — including 
Dr. Alvin A. Hubbell, of Buffalo, a specialist in eye 
and ear diseases, recognized as an authority of much 
weight; especially is his testimony here of special im- 
portance as he is not a Spiritualist. The testimony of 
these various doctors leaves no doubt in mv mind as 
to the genuineness of this serious defect in the hearing 
of Mrs. French. 

We waited in the darkness about twenty minutes, 
having joined hands. It will be observed by the dia- 
gram that Mrs. Blank was placed between Mr. Z. and 
myself, he having hold of her left hand, and I having 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 521 

hold of her right hand, and Miss Z. was next to me, 
and Mrs. Z. next to her. Mrs. French sat at the table 
directly in front of myself, about four feet distant. 
The first voice that came was an exceedingly loud mas- 
culine voice which, we were informed by Mrs. Blank 
was that of one of the controls, the Indian Chief Red 
Jacket — the inevitable Indian! The voice spoke con- 
secutively about ten minutes on the work the " forces " 
wished to do at this series of meetings — he and those 
with him. They were exceedingly anxious this voice 
assured us, to make us know, and make those with 
whom we came in contact know^— not believe, but know 
— that life is continuous. 

"We live," he said, "as real lives — more real — on 
this side than we did when on earth. The laws that 
govern life are the same here as with you. In fact 
everything here is so real that many who come over — 
die as you call it — do not know for a long time that 
they are dead. A great part of the work to be done 
here is to instruct the dead in the true science of prog- 
ress. To the circles held by this medium we often 
bring dazed and earth-bound spirits, so as to be able 
to reach their consciousness through earth surround- 
ings. We and they are then brought to the same place 
and we then can better make them understand their 
condition, they at these seances often recognize the 
voices of those whom in earthlife they knew, and who 
are in the circle. Many of you people in the flesh think 
that those who die are done with time and with the 
earth, but it is still time and it is still earth after we pass 
over. We have not reached the outlines of time, nor of 
the material world. Life on both sides of the grave is 



&n PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

part of the same plan and has the same object and is 
governed largely by the same laws. " Think not that 
the spirit world has a language of its own? We have 
a language compared with which the earth languages 
are blundering. It is heart and mind language. You 
have what you call telepathy. Do any of you know 
what that is? When you find that out you will know 
somewhat of our language. " It may be said that the 
spirit hears what it wishes to hear, and that it makes 
its own world. Each spirit is a creator. You have 
faculties that are now only faintly imagined by you. 
There is reality. The great Spirit is reality. We can- 
not explain these things to you. Only the most de- 
veloped among us know the beginnings of these things. 
We blunder here as you blunder on the earth, but there 
is great progress. You must not believe every spirit 
any more than you believe every man. To some this is 
a dream world, or rather dream worlds, for there are 
as many of these worlds almost as there are individuals. 
But this spirit world is also subject to law. It has its 
environments and its developments. It has its scientific 
basis and limitations as you would call it. You must 
learn to think of this world and the people in it as 
real." 

The various talks of Red Jacket this evening in all 
must have covered one hour, bearing largely on the 
main thought running through the above talk. This 
kind of talk is not new to those who frequently attend 
the better class of seances. If we can believe these 
"spirits" death is not a barrier, but a highway, like 
was the sea to the Vikings. But the thoughts expressed 
had comparatively little interest to me, for I already 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

believed these truths, and some of them seemed to be 
but an echo from my own mind and might have been 
gathered by any bright medium through reading my 
mind. What I wished to know was whether this loud 
voice was produced by that feeble little woman sitting 
at the table ; or whether the voice was produced through 
extemporized vocal organs by a foreign intelligence — 
this latter alternative seemed to me extremely improb- 
able. The thought expressed by the other voices dur- 
ing this first evening was all of an exalted kind, and 
they were always ready to answer the questions which 
we asked. 

Some of the voices were bright and one or two even 
* snappy " but the voices of Red Jacket and Dr. Hos- 
sack another of the principal controls, were exceed- 
ingly serious, impressing one that their owners were 
intelligences of great earnestness. It was quickly evi- 
dent that one of two hypotheses must furnish the ex- 
planation of these phenomena. Either they were pro- 
duced through conscious fraud on the part of the med- 
ium, a fraud which has been continued now for more 
than two score years, or they were produced by foreign 
intelligences. Let it be remembered that the hands of 
all in the circle were joined together, except the hands 
of the medium, I having hold of the right hand of Mrs. 
Blank and Mr. Z. having hold of her left hand. We 
frequently talked to Mrs. Blank while the voices were 
talking. Mrs. Blank was in this way practically elim- 
inated from the problem. The voice of Red Jacket 
appeared to come from a point some four feet above the 
head of the medium, and about three feet to the left 
of her as she sat facing the members of the semi-circle. 



524 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

After I had fully fixed the locality in my mind, I 
asked one after another in the circle to locate the 
point in the room from which the voice came. This I 
did without telling my own impression. All located it 
at about the same spot that I did. It must be remem- 
bered it is not an easy thing to locate from whence a 
sound comes in darkness. 

Those who have never tried it will find it an inter- 
esting experiment. At my request, the voice of Red 
Jacket changed to different parts of the room. This 
it did always on the side where the medium was sitting. 
In reply to a question why he could not come behind 
those of us who were in the circle and speak, he said: 
"It is necessary for us to be near the medium, as we 
draw force from her" — a possible, but an unfortunate 
necessity. Had the medium stood on a chair or used 
a long jointed megaphone she could herself have made 
the voice come from the point whence it seemed to come 
— that is, if possessed of the power to produce the 
voice. We sat in the circle about one hour and a half, 
and as the medium was fatigued by travel, it was sug- 
gested by one of the controls that we close the sitting 
for the evening. Instructions were given us by the 
controls to have the room on the succeeding nights the 
same as this night, and to occupy hereafter the same 
seats. This voice was introduced to us as that of Dr. 
Hossack, a physician who, we were told, when on earth 
was a professor in Columbia College, New York City. 
This was in the early part of the last century. There 
seemed a trace of Mrs. French's voice in that of Dr. 
Hossack, but none of us could discover in the voice of 
Red Jacket any semblance to the exceptionally feeble 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 525 

voice of Mrs. French. We determined hereafter to 
watch carefully for this similarity, believing that in it 
we might get the key to the mystery. Mrs. French is 
a frail woman of about one hundred and seventeen 
pounds weight seventy-two years of age, with a pulse 
that indicates quite a weak and irregular heart. Im- 
mediately after the sitting I felt her pulse, and found 
it sixty-eight to the minute, missing every third or 
fourth beat. It is not often that one hears two voices 
more unlike than that of Red Jacket and Mrs. French. 



CHAPTER XII 

SECOND SITTING 
Tuesday, May 30, 1905. 

Immediately upon the arrival of Mrs. French and 
Mrs. Blank, we entered the seance room, and were 
seated as on the first evening. It will be remembered 
that neither of these two women was permitted to visit 
the home of Mrs. Z. except at the time of the sittings. 
Before the lights were turned out, we all carefully 
marked the exact location of Mrs. French, and also 
trained ourselves to locate by the sound the distance 
and direction of a voice, observing how, when the head 
is turned in any one direction, the voice seems to pro- 
ceed from a point toward the side of the room to which 
the head is turned. In that way a voice can be made 
to appear as proceeding from a point near the ceiling 
or a point near the floor or to the right hand or left 
hand, or back of the one speaking. When Red Jacket's 



526 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

voice came, he directed, upon my suggestion, that the 
left hand of Mrs. French and the right hand of Mrs. 
Z. be joined. This made it more possible for Mrs. 
Z. to detect any movement of Mrs. French. 

The voice of Red Jacket appeared to be of the same 
timbre as the night before, and it seemed equally high 
above the medium's head, about eight feet from the 
floor, and toward the sliding door between the two 
parlors. Our various tests again confirmed our partial 
conviction of the night before — that Mrs. Blank had 
nothing whatever to do with these voices. This we 
proved by talking to her and having her talk to us 
while the voices were speaking. Our tests also elimi- 
nated the theory that Mrs. French left her seat or stood 
up. All of these possibilities had been thoroughly 
canvassed by us prior to the coming of Mrs. B. and 
Mrs. F. this evening. 

The theory of a megaphone manipulated by one 
hand of the medium, and the theory of the medium 
being an accomplished ventriloquist remained. To test 
these theories, I requested the medium to talk at the 
same time Red Jacket talked. If this could be done, 
it would help us also to locate the whereabouts of the 
medium when her hand was not being held by Mrs. Z. 
We were told by one of the voices that we must rec- 
ognize the possibility of failures in this simultane- 
ous talking because of the complexity and difficulty of 
the phenomena ; " you do not fully realize," said Dr. 
Hossack, " how exceeding delicate is the organ (me- 
dium) we have to work with. She is very frail. Many 
times we have kept her in her body when even her 
physicians were sure that she would pass out. She is 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON m 

of very great importance to us as an instrument, and 
you must not ask us to take undue risks ; and yet on 
the other hand, we understand perfectly the value of 
the experiments that you are making, and will do every- 
thing in our power to help you make these experiments 
satisfactory. It is far better for her that she keep 
quiet while the other voices are talking and are thus 
drawing upon her strength. We have here a band of 
medical experts who are watching closely the heart and 
mind of the medium, and we have also with us a chemi- 
cal expert and a band of what you would probably call 
electricians, who are adepts in the manufacture and 
control of the vital currents. 

It may seem to you an easy matter that the medium 
should talk simultaneously with us ; but I assure you 
it is an extraordinary difficult and dangerous thing; 
and I again assure you that we have come here to do 
what is possible to do to satisfy you of the genuine- 
ness and the significance of these phenomena." "Yes, 
yes," said the medium, her "Yes, yes," seemed to be 
simultaneous with the voice, yet we were not all abso- 
lutely certain of this. During the remainder of the 
evening, a score of times the medium seemed to talk at 
the same time that did the other voices. Some of us 
thought yes, others of us were slightly in doubt, believ- 
ing there was a fraction of a second between the voices. 
Mrs. Z. who had Mrs. F.'s hand was fairly sure that the 
voices were simultaneous. To us all it seemed very 
hard to believe that any human being could have spoken 
in two different voices so nearly simultaneously and so 
often, without sometimes using the wrong voice; and 
also the conviction was constantly growing upon us, 



528 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

that the feeble, quiet, delicately refined voice of Mrs. F. 
could not have been produced by the same vocal organs 
that produced the strong masculine voice of Red Jacket 
even though assisted by some mechanism. Another 
point to be tested was whether the defective hearing of 
Mrs. F. could catch our questions asked of Red Jacket 
when uttered in low conversational tones. We found 
that Red Jacket responded to our questions and re- 
marks, no matter how low our tones were. This is a 
very important factor in the problem of determining 
the origin of these voices. 

As to Dr. Hossack's suggestion that the phenome- 
non is difficult to produce, when we come to think of it, 
what reason have we to conclude that the spirit is a 
simple and easy state of existence? Analogy tells us 
the contrary. As we progress, the problems of life, of 
thinking, and of acting grow more and more marvelous 
and difficult. Water seems to us an easy substance to 
handle, but as we go upward to hydrogen and oxygen, 
and then back to atoms and electrons, and the combin- 
ing of these in many ways — well, who cares for all this ? 
We cut the Gordian knot and say " God directs." Why 
may it not be there, as here, God works through others 
these countless marvels, and that among these others 
are the spirits of the generations that have gone before, 
and that there as here the doing of things must all 
be learned in natural ways, and the human faculties 
developed gradually by exercise, so that there as here 
are all degrees of perfection and imperfection. TTie 
seance lasted this evening two hours, about one hour 
and a half being taken in talks by some half a dozen 
different voices. About fifty minutes of this time was 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 529 

taken in a talk of a most serious sort, by Red Jacket, 
urging the human race to brotherhood and to labor 
for others, insisting that each one make his life har- 
monize with truth, and saying that if we did this, we 
would be well advanced where we entered the other 
world, " for " he declared, " all real growth springs out 
of a desire for the welfare of our fellows." 

THIRD SITTING 
Wednesday, May 31, 1905, 

We added to our circle this evening Miss H. a cele- 
brated author. She sat between Miss Z. and myself. 
The position of each sitter in the circle was otherwise 
the same as on the two previous evenings. When Red 
Jacket's voice came I told him that the theory of the 
megaphone or speaking trumpet would be used by the 
critical public as a possible explanation, also that ven- 
triloquism would be urged in explanation, and asked 
him if he could, to give us some experiments that would 
exclude both of these hypotheses. His answer was 
"We will do whatever the strength of the medium will 
permit." In reply to a question whether he would not 
tell us his experiences upon his entrance into the other 
world at death, and also to let us know what his present 
work was in the spirit world, Red Jacket for fifty-five 
minutes, as nearly as I could judge by noting the strik- 
ing of the clock in a near by room, spoke in his usual 
loud masculine voice. 

My purpose in putting these questions to Red Jacket 
was to have him make a long speech, believing that 
such an effort would test greatly the physical endur- 



530 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

ance of Mrs. French, provided she produced the voice. 
I have had much experience in judging of the carrying 
capacity of voices, and I have no doubt that the voice 
of Red Jacket as we listened to it this evening would 
easily have filled a hall with a seating capacity of 
two thousand people, while Mrs. F.'s voice, at its 
loudest, so far as I have heard it, would not fill a parlor 
twenty feet square. 

An address in a loud voice, lasting fifty-five minutes, 
is an exhausting strain upon the average strong man. 
Immediately after this speaking I felt Mrs. F.'s pulse, 
and found that it was as usual, weak and irregular ; but 
not noticeably so beyond what I had found it when 
she first came into the room. At the beginning of the 
seance Mrs. Z. was requested by Red Jacket to put her 
hands upon both of the hands of Mrs. F. This she 
did throughout the speaking. Under these conditions 
the megaphone theory became wholly an impossible 
one. Mrs. Z. knows well the trick of a medium cover- 
ing both hands with one, so as to make believe that 
both hands are being accounted for. She assured us 
that she covered fully each hand of the medium with 
her hands. Frequently at this sittting Mrs. F. replied 
in a natural voice, that certainly seemed at times simul- 
taneous with Red Jacket's speaking. During the whole 
of the talking one of Mrs. Blank's hands was held by 
Mr. Z.'s hand, and the other was held by me. The sit- 
ting lasted one hour and forty minutes. 

FOURTH SITTING 

Thursday, June 1, 1905. 
Red Jacket invited me to sit immediately in front of 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 531 

the little table at which Mrs. F. is accustomed to sit, 
and to place my hands on her two hands. I separated 
her two hands about twelve inches, so that the one hand 
of the medium could not possibly be mistaken for two 
hands, a trick that I have known to have been played 
again and again ; a trick I myself have played success- 
fully in a dark circle. I put my hands straight out 
from my body, so as to have the width of my body 
between the two hands, I again requested Mrs. F. to 
talk much. Her face could not have been more than 
twenty-four inches from mine. I could hear her breathe 
as well as talk. Red Jacket and the other voices talked 
freely, and Mrs. F. frequently spoke, seemingly at the 
same time. This test lasted probably ten minutes. It 
made it impossible for me to hold longer the megaphone 
theory, and it is difficult to see how it was possible to 
explain the phenomena by ventriloquism. As nearly 
as it is possible for the ear to detect, Mrs. F. breathed 
naturally and talked in her usual low tones, at the 
same instant that the explosive voice of Red Jacket 
spoke. I noted particularly the breathing of Mrs. 
French. Her breath came regular during the sen- 
tences of Red Jacket, whether they were long or short. 
" Sit back ! " Red Jacket suddenly thundered in an 
explosive voice that seemed to shake the room. I sat 
back. He afterward explained that the heart of the 
medium had begun "to thump" and that there was 
danger to her if the test continued longer. Just before 
the command, I was told I would feel the passing of a 
spirit over my face. I felt a cool breath of air. But 
this could have been produced by the medium, if she 
had so desired, for if you blow in the face of another 



532 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

at the distance of fifteen or twenty inches, the air will 
feel cool. 

After I had resumed my seat in the circle there came 
a strange, laughing voice, very loud, which seemed to 
come from the neighborhood of the door that led into 
the hall, or from out in the hall, some six or eight feet 
distant from the medium. This loud laughing voice was 
a curious phenomenon, and seemed to startle greatly 
the medium. The voice came at our request repeatedly, 
some ten times in all, each laugh averaging possibly a 
dozen ha ha's, and varying from a deep basso to almost 
a treble. We were told by Red Jacket that this phenom- 
enon was permitted to show the impossibility "of the 
medium producing these voices through ventriloquism, 
as it must be manifest to all here that it is wholly 
beyond any conceivable compass of a female voice, 
and especially of so weak a voice as that of Mrs. 
French. 

The location of the voice seemed to change from 
place to place, at our request, sometimes it sounded as 
if near the floor and then up high near the ceiling and 
then about six feet to the left of the medium and then 
to her right, and then back of her, and then again 
immediately in front of her. This suggested the art of 
ventriloquism together with the turning of the head 
from side to side; but the utter physical weakness of 
the medium, and her exceptionally feeble voice added 
to the other tests that we had previously made, seemed 
almost conclusive — if not altogether so — against this 
theory. At times when the laughing took place, Mrs. 
Z. at our request, took hold of both hands of the 
medium, and Mrs. Z. and I held both hands of Mrs. 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 53S 

Blank, so that the use of a megaphone was again 
wholly impossible. It is well again to remember that 
for Mrs. F. to have produced the laugh that we heard, 
requires us to believe that she possesses extraordinar- 
ily well developed lungs and vocal powers, while the 
truth is, her whole physical build is after a most deli- 
cate feeble feminine model. It is as easy to think of a 
rabbit barking like a bulldog, or bellowing like a bull, 
as to think of one physically made up as is Mrs. F. 
producing such a laugh. 

It should also be remembered that Mrs. Z. and Miss 
Z., and Mr. Z. and I are all seasoned investigators. I 
myself have been at hundreds of seances of all kinds. 
The reader can take it for granted that not one of our 
company could be stampeded or excited by the novelty 
or weirdness of this sort of experiences. 

During the evening there were female voices as well 
as male voices other than that of Red Jacket's. The 
phenomena continued until 9:30. The theory of col- 
lective hallucination it would be very difficult to apply 
to this series of phenomena. We did not expect the 
laughing voice ; we had not heard that anything of the 
kind ever occurred at Mrs. French's sittings. On in- 
quiry I found it had not been heard at the sittings in 
Buffalo or Rochester. We criticized it one to the other, 
talked about it, and talked to the spirit's personality, 
and he responded. We talked in a low voice also to the 
personality and were correctly answered. Mrs. French 
seemed very much amused at the voice, and often 
laughed in her quiet way, but so loud that we could all 
hear her laugh, seeming at the same time that this loud 
laughter occurred- After listening to it on other 



534 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

evenings, I have no doubt whatever as to the inapplic- 
ability of the collective hallucination theory. 

The following question was asked of Dr. Hossack 
during the evening: Why can not every one be a me- 
dium? Why does the spirit-world pass by some of our 
most excellent people, and choose sometimes unworthy 
ones for mediums? This was asked also to test the 
mental caliber of the personality who talked. The 
answer was : " Can you tell me why it is that copper is 
better than gold to carry the telegraphic message, or 
why it is that one material is better than another to 
hold the picture on the photographic plate, or why it 
is that radium is to be found in pitchblende and not in 
silver or gold? It is, my friend, a natural law, and it 
is not for us to quarrel with natural laws, but to con- 
form to them. It is only by conforming to them that 
we can get anything from nature." This talk was 
written down from memory several days afterward and 
may not be verbally correct, but the thought is. In 
nearly all other incidents in this series I wrote out the 
talks the same evening. 

FIFTH SITTING 

Friday, June 2, 1905 

For about forty minutes no voices came. At all 
of these meetings Mrs. French claims she sees, some- 
what over our heads, a string of lights which at first 
are disconnected, and, when conditions are perfected 
for the voices to come, the lights join. To-night she 
reported the lights are coming very slowly and as 
being loth to connect. The weather conditions were 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 535 

reported unfavorable, as it was stormy, and the at- 
mospheric pressure heavy. The voices however, finally 
came. Red Jacket delivered a talk of about half an 
hour in length, a well sustained and connected talk. 
His addresses on these occasions are all markedly seri- 
ous, no jesting or light talking, and they are remark- 
ably free from errors in grammar. Sometimes he will 
ask for the proper technical word. The following is 
an outline of his talk as written down the day follow- 
ing by Mr. Z. at my request. It is as unlike as can be 
to conversations I have had with Mrs. French out of 
the seance-room: 

" Friends I greet you ! I wish to call your attention 
to some of the conditions used by this medium in mak- 
ing communications possible. 

" Referring back to many moons ago, or as the pale 
face says, years ago, after any entrance into spirit- 
life, a number of earnest spirits anxious to help mortals 
by imparting more accurate information about the con- 
ditions of life here and how life on your side affected 
life here, held meetings in an assembly-hall here called 
* The Hall of Truth ' we decided to search among mor- 
tals if we could find any sensitives suitable for the spe- 
cial purposes that we had in view. We found but three 
and one of these soon passed over to this side. Later 
we found that the kind of sensitives we had selected 
would not answer. We needed a different and higher 
grade. We made other explorations, testing other 
mediums. Finally we found the medium we have been 
using now for so many years. 

" You understand the mind works through the brain. 



536 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

But to the mental force is added what may be called 
the vital force which is more closely connected with 
the entire nervous system. These forces produce what 
may be called electro-magnetism. Follow me closely. 
Now we have found that there are some mortals born 
with a double spinal cord. This is very rarely a fact. 
This second spinal cord generates the force we need for 
our particular purpose, that is to produce the vibrations 
which you call * voices.' So delicate and important is 
the force produced by this second spinal cord, that a 
medicine man stands behind this medium all the time 
we use this force, and brings a pressure to bear at the 
end of the cord, near the base of the brain. This ex- 
plains why this medium says she feels a tapping going 
on at the base of her brain while we are talking." 

This curious explanation of the phenomena by Red 
Jacket was drawn out to a considerable length, and 
became very technical. 

In answer to a question, Dr. Hossack replied that 
when he was practicing medicine on earth, he read the 
'report of a case of the finding of a double spinal cord. 
This was found in dissecting the body of a Scotchman 
in Berlin, Germany. It was then regarded by the med- 
ical authorities as a mere freak, and little attention at 
that time was paid to it. Suddenly in the midst of our 
talk there broke in a voice with a very pronounced Irish 
brogue. He seemed to pass to the right and then to 
the left of the medium again and again, and kept up 
a rattle of quaint remarks for about five minutes. We 
were afterward told by Dr. Hossack that the object 
of this interruption was to get us less intense, so as 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 537 

to make it easier for the spirits to use the vital forces 
of the medium and of the members of the circle. This 
voice had all the quaint humor with which we associate 
the typical Irishman. It is quite evident, if these phe- 
nomena are what they claim to be, that national and 
individual characteristics perdure beyond the great 
divide. Of course, the apparent change of location 
of the voice could be produced by a medium, if tricky, 
by turning her head as already indicated. The left 
hand of the medium was held most of the time by the 
right hand of Mrs. Z. Mrs. Z. reported that the me- 
dium seemed to be wholly passive, and more than usu- 
ally weak — " as weak as a child." I felt the medium's 
pulse, and it was very weak and very irregular. 

Red Jacket's speech is often very picturesque. For 
example, this evening he was speaking to one in the 
circle who had just passed through much trouble and 
was discouraged. He said " Your boat has rocked and 
your oars fallen out." Of a public character who was 
known somewhat for the bitterness of his speech, he 
said, " He shot his words like arrows, and they wounded 
people. We should give health, not hurt. This is right. 
Say, friends, it is right." 

During the last sitting or two we have directed our 
attention more to the thoughts uttered by the voices, 
and have sought to compare them with the thoughts 
expressed by Mrs. French when not in the circle, striv- 
ing to judge of the mental caliber of the medium and 
the mental caliber of the individualities as revealed 
through these voices. There seems to be as great 
a difference between the mentality of Red Jacket, 
Dr. Hossack and two or three others of the individ- 



538 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

ualities revealed through these strange phenomena as 
there is in the voices. 

It is well constantly to bear in mind that a quick 
accurate ear is rare. A close observer is not a person- 
age we meet every day. 

An investigator of phenomena of this kind should 
studiously avoid coming to any conclusions during his 
series of sittings, for an opinion is sure to bias his 
physical senses. And just here let me whisper to the 
critic: We should all learn to judge leniently the 
opinions of others, knowing that our own are sometimes 
in error. The moral quality of the talks at these se- 
ances is an element that is to be considered. Not once 
at the sittings this week has there been uttered a word 
of hate, an unclean word, or even a silly word. In fact 
experiences at a great majority of the seances I have 
attended with different mediums justify the testimony 
of Frederick Meyers that the "spirit talks" are as a 
whole of an exceptionally exalted character. 

I find in my note book this sentence which I jotted 
down from a prayer of Mrs. Pepper given at one of her 
meetings in Brooklyn, she supposed to be at the time 
in a trance: "We thank Thee for that divine and 
wonderful blessing men call birth, and we thank Thee 
for that equally divine and still more wonderful bless- 
ing, which men have misnamed death." 

When dozens of sentences of this kind come from 
the same individual under various circumstances, it be- 
comes increasingly difficult to believe that the soul that 
utters them is unclean or unspiritual. 

The sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh and 
twelfth sittings in this series I conclude to omit, as 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 539 

they contain no particular proof above those I have 
given : Mrs. French was becoming exhausted under this 
strain, so that this water test could not be successfully 
tried. Mr. Funk afterward went to Rochester pur- 
posely to get this test. His account of this sitting I 
will now give: 



CHAPTER XIII 

A SUPPLEMENTAL SITTING AT 
ROCHESTER 

" Some weeks after Mrs. French and Mrs. Blank re- 
turned from New York to their home in Rochester I 
arranged for a seance in Rochester. My object was 
if possible, to try again the water test. This arrange- 
ment was made through a prominent lawyer in that 
city, a man well known, but not a Spiritualist. This 
friend is deeply interested in these investigations of 
these mysterious phenomena. 

We met Mrs. French at a private house of my 
friend's selecting. I requested Mrs. Blank, who was to 
be present, to coach Mrs. French in holding two table- 
spoonfuls of water in her mouth and breathing at the 
same time through her nostrils. We hoped in this way 
to allay her nervous excitement which in our previous 
tests in New York was said to have been largely the 
cause of the fluttering of her heart during the trial. 
The conditions were wholly under my control the same 
as they were in New York. The room was on the sec- 
ond floor, and the keys after locking the two doors, I 



540 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

placed in my pocket. I bought the matter for color- 
ing the water on my way to the house, and brought 
with me my own measuring glass. No one but myself 
knew the color of the liquid I would use. I took into 
the seance-room the glass tumbler containing the two 
tablespoonfuls of water, and then placed in the glass 
the coloring-matter, and then permitted the medium to 
taste it, so as to relieve her mind as to any thought or 
any fear of it being unpleasant. 

The plan to be pursued by us I outlined as follows : 
A candlestick with a candle in it was placed on a table 
at the side of one of the members of the circle, and 
when the control gave the word, that gentleman who 
is a dentist in Rochester, was to light the candle ; then 
I was to give to the medium the liquid in the presence 
of all the members of the circle, holding the glass in 
my hands, the medium was to take all of the liquid in 
her mouth ; I was to place the empty glass on the floor 
between my feet ; the light was then to be extinguished, 
and immediately thereafter Red Jacket, if possible, was 
to speak in his natural voice, and then the candle was to 
be relit and the colored water was to be ejected from 
the mouth of the medium into the measuring glass which 
I was to hold, and we were all to see whether the same 
amount of liquid had been emptied from the medium's 
mouth into the glass as was in it at the beginning of 
the seance, and whether it was of the same color. 

The four persons — besides my friend, Mrs. Blank, 
Mrs. French and myself — who made up the circle were 
all intimately known to my friend. 

The plan of procedure as described above was car- 
ried out to the letter, and Red Jacket spoke within a 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 541 

minute after the liquid had been taken into the medium 's 
mouth and the light extinguished. 

It should be remembered that I held the glass to her 
mouth before the light was extinguished, and after the 
voice came the candle was relit and the medium emptied 
the liquid from her mouth into the measuring glass 
which I held in my hand. The liquid emptied into the 
glass I found to be the exact amount that I gave her, 
and was in the judgment of us all of the same color. 

This test was a perfect one with only a single draw- 
back which did not occur to me I am sorry to say, until 
after I left the house. A very sly tricky person might 
have had an empty bottle or glass concealed about her 
person and, as soon as the light was extinguished, emp- 
tied the liquid into this glass, and then after the speak- 
ing and before the light was relit, put the liquid back 
into her mouth, " Had one of our number held both of 
the medium's hands while the room was in darkness, the 
test would have been complete in every part as far as 
I can see. This concealed-glass theory is an exceed- 
ingly unlikely one under all of the conditions, but it 
must be regarded as a possible one, and should be 
guarded against in any future tests. At some future 
sitting I will try to guard against this unlikely, but 
possible hypothesis. 

'Tis true it is a pity, and pity 'tis, 'tis true. I re- 
gret to record this oversight. Because here is a straw 
that opponents to Spiritualism will grasp at; but to 
the honest investigator I do not see how so grave a 
reflection as this can be cast upon the character of Mrs. 
French : for Mrs. French would from the nature of the 
case have to be the prime actor in this case of fraud. 



542 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

Take the whole history I have recorded in regard to 
her mediumship ; her character in fine everything as 
detailed Mr. Moore's letter and all, and see if it is 
possible to entertain a thought that this woman — 
seventy-two years of age — would resort to subterfuge 
like this. The cogent reason that she is not guilty 
of this possible exception is that there was no occasion 
for it. She was charging no fee. These manifesta- 
tions had been produced through her organism for over 
a score of years, and it is one of the most irrational 
conclusions that irrational man can arrive at, that she 
would keep this deception up all of this time "just for 
fun." This is my verdict. 

Here is Mr. Moore's Affidavit: 

" Secretary of the Rochester Art Club : 

"I have attended the sittings with Mrs. French of 
this city from time to time during the past twenty 
years. I am positively convinced of the genuineness 
of the manifestations of spirit-voices which occur 
through her mediumship. 

"I have, during these years, tried by every device 
that human ingenuity could suggest, to discover fraud 
on the part of Mrs. French but without avail. 

" I have known Mrs. French, during some of her se- 
ances when I happened to sit next to her, to place her 
mouth on the back of my hand and keep it there while 
Red Jacket — her principal control, was speaking. 

"And I have many times heard Mrs. French con- 
versing while Red Jacket's or some other control's 
voices have been addressing the circle. 

A. W. Mooee." 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 543 

Sworn to before me, this 19th day of April, 1906. 
Mary Jeanette Ballantyne. 
Notary Public. 

It is plain that Mr. Moore has had a much wider 
range of experience with Mrs. French, than did Mr. 
Funk. The former's reaches back over a period of 
twenty years, when this medium would have been much 
younger and stronger than when investigated by Mr. 
Funk. And while I own that Mr. Funk has aimed to 
be honest and fair, and it is evident from his language 
that he thinks the medium honest and that the voices 
were those of discarnate intelligences: yet where ab- 
solute proof is necessary with no possible loophole that 
incredulity can crawl through; I think Mr. Moore's 
letter and affidavit furnishes incontrovertible proof. 
This coupled with Mr. Funk's account, makes what I 
consider an excellent chapter for the truth seeker: 



CHAPTER XIV 

Among the things I have read under the head of 
" Spiritual Phenomena " I do not recall anything that 
has more profoundly impressed me than the account of 
Sir William Crooks' investigations upon this momen- 
tous subject. His standing in the scientific world, 
titled as he is, " Sir William Crooks, F. R. S., was 
editor of the London Quarterly Journal of Science; 
discoverer of the sodium amalgam process; inventor 
of the radiometer ortheoscope; gold medalist of the 
French Academy of Sciences, and president of the 



5U PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

British Association for the Advancement of Science, 
and the Society for Psychical Research." 

The circumstances and opportunities by which Mr. 
Crooks has been favored in his researches, and the 
straightforward manner in which he has recorded what 
he has witnessed, makes it incumbent upon me to place 
him among the contributors to this work. 

Mr. Crooks has investigated many phases of medium- 
ship (as is shown in his work), but his investigation 
in the phase of " materialization," with Miss Florence 
Cook as medium, impresses me as being the part best 
calculated to reach the mentality of humanity in gen- 
eral. 

Miss Florence Cook's Mediumship 

[The following letters appeared in the Spiritualis- 
tic journals at the dates which they bear.] 

" Sir — It has been my endeavor to keep as clear of 
controversy as possible, in writing or speaking, about 
so inflammatory a topic as the phenomena called Spir- 
itual. Except in very few cases, where the prominent 
position of my opponent would have caused my silence 
to be ascribed to other than real motives, I have made 
no reply to the attacks and misrepresentations which 
my connection with this subject has entailed upon me. 

" The case is otherwise, however, when a few lines 
from me may perhaps assist in removing an unjust 
suspicion which is cast upon another. And when this 
other person is a woman — young, sensitive, innocent — 
it becomes especially a duty for me to give the weight 
of my testimony in favor of her whom I believe to be 
unjustly accused. 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 545 

"Among all the arguments brought forward on 
either side touching the phenomena of Miss Cook's me- 
diumship, I see very few facts stated in such a way 
as to lead an unprejudiced reader, provided he can 
trust the judgment and veracity of the narrator, to 
say, 'Here is at last absolute proof.' I see plenty of 
strong assertion, much unintentional exaggeration, 
endless conjecture and supposition, no little insinua- 
tion of fraud, and some amount of vulgar buffoonery ; 
but no one has come forward with a positive assertion, 
based upon the evidence of his own senses, to the effect 
that when the form which calls itself ' Katie ' is visible 
in the room, the body of Miss Cook is either actually 
in the cabinet or is not there. 

" It appears to me that the whole question narrows 
itself into this small compass : Let either of the above 
alternatives be proved to be a fact, and all the other 
collateral questions may be dismissed. But the proof 
must be absolute, and not based upon inferential rea- 
soning, or assumed upon the supposed integrity of 
seals, knots and sewing; for I have reason to know 
that the power at work in these phenomena, like Love, 
'laughs at locksmiths.' 

"I was in hopes that some of those friends of Miss 
Cook, who have attended her seances almost from the 
commencement, and who appear to have been highly 
favored in the tests they have received, would, ere this, 
have borne testimony in her favor. In default, how- 
ever, of evidence from those who have followed these 
phenomena from their beginning nearly three years 
ago, let me, who have only been admitted, as it were 
at the eleventh hour, state a circumstance which came 



546 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

under my notice at a seance to which I was invited by 
the favor of Miss Cook, a few days after the disgrace- 
ful occurrence which has given rise to this controversy. 

" The seance was held at the house of Mr. Luxmore, 
and the c cabinet ' was a back drawing-room, separated 
from the front room in which the company sat by a 
curtain. 

"The usual formality of searching the room and 
examining the fastenings having been gone through, 
Miss Cook entered the cabinet. 

"After a little time the form of Katie appeared at 
the side of the curtain, but soon retreated, saying her 
medium was not well, and could not be put in suffi- 
ciently deep sleep to make it safe for her to be left. 

" I was sitting within a few feet of the curtain, close 
behind which Miss Cook was sitting, and I could fre- 
quently hear her moan and sob, as if in pain. This 
uneasiness continued at intervals nearly the whole dura- 
tion of the seance, and once, when the form of Katie 
was standing before me in the room, I distinctly heard 
a sobbing, moaning sound, identical with that which 
Miss Cook had been making at intervals the whole time 
of the seance, come from behind the curtain where the 
young lady was supposed to be sitting. 

" I admit that the figure was startlingly life-like and 
real, and, as far as I could see in the somewhat dim 
light, the features resembled those of Miss Cook; but 
still the positive evidence of one of my own senses is 
that the moan came from Miss Cook in the cabinet, 
whilst the figure was outside, is too strong to be up- 
set by a mere inference to the contrary, however well 
supported. 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 54? 

"Your readers, sir, know me, and will, I hope, be- 
lieve that I will not come hastily to an opinion, or 
ask them to agree with me on insufficient evidence. 
It is perhaps expecting too much to think that the 
little incident I have mentioned will have the same 
weight with them that it had with me. But this I 
do beg of them: Let those who are inclined to judge 
Miss Cook harshly suspend their judgment until I 
bring forward positive evidence which I think will be 
sufficient to settle the question. 

"Miss Cook is now devoting herself exclusively to a 
series of private seances with me and one or two 
friends. The seances will probably extend over some 
months, and I am promised that every desirable test 
shall be given to me. These seances have not been 
going on many weeks, but enough has taken place to 
thoroughly convince me of the perfect truth and hon- 
esty of Miss Cook, and to give me every reason to 
expect that the promises so freely made to me by Katie 
will be kept. 

"All I now ask is that your readers will not hastily 
assume that everything which is prima facie suspicious 
necessarily implies deception, and that they will sus- 
pend their judgment until they hear from me again 
on this subject. I am, etc. 

"William Crookes, 
" 20 Mornington Road, London. 

"Feb. 3, 1874." 



Spirit-Forms 
"In a letter which I wrote to this journal early in 
February last, speaking of the phenomena of spirit- 



548 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

forms which have appeared through Miss Cook's me- 
diumship, I said, 'Let those who are inclined to judge 
Miss Cook harshly suspend their judgment until I bring 
forward positive evidence which I think will be suffi- 
cient to settle the question. Miss Cook is now devoting 
herself exclusively to a series of private seances with 
me and one or two friends. . . . Enough has taken 
place to thoroughly convince me of the perfect truth 
and honesty of Miss Cook, and to give me every rea- 
son to expect that the promises so freely made to me 
by Katie will be kept.' 

" In that letter I described an incident which, to my 
mind, went very far towards convincing me that Katie 
and Miss Cook were two separate material beings, when 
Katie was outside the cabinet, standing before me, and 
I heard a moaning noise from Miss Cook in the cab- 
inet. I am happy to say that I have at last obtained 
the ' absolute proof ' to which I referred in the above- 
quoted letter. I will, for the present, pass over most 
of the tests which Kiatie has given me on the many 
questions when Miss Cook has favored me with seances 
at this house, and will only describe one or two which 
I have recently had. I have for some time past been 
experimenting with a phosphorus lamp, consisting of 
a 6-oz. or 8-oz. bottle, containing a little phosphorized 
oil, and tightly corked. I have had reason to hope 
that by the light of this lamp some of the mysterious 
phenomena of the cabinet might be rendered visible, 
and Kiatie has also expressed herself hopefully as to 
the same result. 

" On March l£th, during a seance here, after Katie 
had been walking amongst us and talking for some 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 549 

time, she retreated behind the curtain which separated 
my laboratory, where the company was sitting, from 
my library, which did temporary duty as a cabinet. In 
a minute she came to the curtain and called me to her, 
saying, * Come into the room and lift my medium's head 
up; she has slipped down.' Katie was then standing 
before me, clothed in her usual white robes and turban 
head-dress. I immediately walked into the library, up 
to Miss Cook, Katie stepping aside to allow me to 
pass. I found Miss Cook had slipped partly off the 
sofa, and her head was hanging in a very awkward 
position. I lifted her on to the sofa, and in so doing 
had satisfactory evidence, in spite of the darkness, that 
Miss Cook was not attired in the 6 Katie ' costume, but 
had on her ordinary black velvet dress, and was in a 
deep trance. Not more than three seconds elapsed 
between my seeing the white-robed Katie standing be- 
fore me and my raising Miss Cook on to the sofa from 
the position into which she had fallen. 

"On returning to my post of observation by the 
curtain, Katie again appeared, and said she thought 
she would be able to show herself and her medium at 
the same time. The gas was then turned out, and she 
asked for my phosphorous lamp. After exhibiting her- 
self by it for some seconds, she handed it back to me, 
saying, ' Now come and see my medium.' I closely fol- 
lowed her into the library, and by the light of my 
lamp saw Miss Cook lying on the sofa just as I had 
left her. I looked round for Katie, but she had dis- 
appeared. I called her, but there was no answer. 

"On resuming my place, Katie soon reappeared and 
told me that she had been standing close to Miss Cook 



550 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

all the time. She then asked if she might try an ex- 
periment herself, and taking the phosphorous lamp 
from me she passed behind the curtain, asking me not 
to look in for the present. In a few minutes she 
handed the lamp back to me, saying she could not suc- 
ceed, as she had used up all her power, but would try 
again some other time. My eldest son, a lad of four- 
teen, who was sitting opposite me, in such a position 
that he could see behind the curtain, tells me he dis- 
tinctly saw the phosphorous lamp apparently floating 
about in space over Miss Cook, illuminating her as she 
lay motionless on the sofa, but he could not see any- 
one holding the lamp. 

" I pass on to a seance held last night at Hackney. 
Katie never appeared to greater perfection, and for 
nearly two hours she walked about the room, convers- 
ing familiarly with those present. On several occasions 
she took my arm when walking, and the impression 
conveyed to my mind that it was a living woman by 
my side, instead of a visitor from the other world, was 
so strong, that the temptation to repeat a recent cele- 
brated experiment became almost irresistible. Feeling, 
however, that if I had not a spirit, I had at all events 
a lady close to me, I asked her permission to clasp her 
in my arms, so as to be able to verify the interesting 
observations which a bold experimentalist has recently 
somewhat verbosely recorded. Permission was gra- 
ciously given, and I accordingly did — well, as any gen- 
tleman would do under the circumstances. Mr. Volak- 
man will be pleased to know that I corroborate his 
statement that the * ghost ' (not struggling, however) 
was as material a being as Miss Cook herself. But 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 551 

the sequel shows how wrong it is for an experimen- 
talist, however accurate his observations may be, to 
venture to draw an important conclusion from an insuf- 
ficient amount of evidence. 

"Katie now said she thought she would be able this 
time to show herself and Miss Cook together. I was 
to turn the gas out, and then come with, my phos- 
phorous lamp into the room now used as a cabinet. 
This I did, having previously asked a friend who was 
skillful in shorthand to take down any statement I 
might make when in the cabinet, knowing the impor- 
tance attaching to first impressions, and not wishing 
to leave more to memory than necessary. His notes are 
now before me. 

" I went cautiously into the room, it being dark, and 
felt about for Miss Cook. I found her crouching on 
the floor. Kneeling down, I let air into the lamp, and 
by its light I saw the young lady dressed in black 
velvet, as she had been in the early part of the even- 
ing, and to all appearances perfectly senseless; she 
did not move when I took her hand and held the light 
quite close to her face, but continued quietly breathing. 

"Raising the lamp, I looked around and saw Katie 
standing close behind Miss Cook. She was robed in 
flowing white drapery, as we had seen her previously 
during the seance. Holding one of Miss Cook's hands 
in mine, and still kneeling, I passed the lamp up and 
down, so as to illuminate Katie's whole figure, and sat- 
isfy myself thoroughly that I was looking at the ver- 
itable Katie whom I had clasped in my arms a few 
minutes before, and not the phantasm of a disordered 
brain. She did not speak, but moved her head and 



552 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

smiled recognition. Three separate times did I care- 
fully examine Miss Cook crouching before me, to be 
sure that the hand I held was that of a living woman, 
and three separate times did I turn the lamp to Katie 
and examine her with steadfast scrutiny, until I had 
no doubt whatever of her objective reality. At last, 
Miss Cook moved slightly, and Katie instantly mo- 
tioned me to go away. I went to another part of the 
cabinet, and then ceased to see Katie, but did not 
leave the room till Miss Cook woke up, and two of the 
visitors came in with a light. 

" Before concluding this article I wish to give some 
of the points of difference which I have observed be- 
tween Miss Cook and Katie. Katie's height varies ; in 
my house I have seen her six inches taller than Miss 
Cook. Last night, with bare feet, and not 6 tiptoeing,' 
she was four and a half inches taller than Miss Cook. 
Katie's neck was bare last night, the skin was perfectly 
smooth, both to touch and sight, whilst on Miss Cook's 
neck is a large blister, which, under similar circum- 
stances, is distinctly visible and rough to the touch. 
Katie's ears are unpierced, whilst Miss Cook habitually 
wears earrings. Katie's complexion is very fair, while 
that of Miss Cook is very dark. Katie's fingers are 
much longer than Miss Cook's, and her face is also 
larger. In manners and ways of expression there are 
also many decided differences. 

"Miss Cook's health is not good enough to allow of 
her giving more of these test seances for the next few 
weeks, and we have, therefore, strongly advised her to 
take an entire rest before recommencing the experimen- 
tal campaign which I have sketched out for her, and 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 553 

the results of which I hope to be able to record at 
some future day. 

" 20 Mornington Road, N. W. 
"March 30th, 1874." 



CHAPTER XV 

The Last of Katie King 

"Having taken a very prominent part of late at 
Miss Cook's seances, and having been very successful 
in taking numerous photographs of Katie King by the 
aid of the electric light, I have thought that the pub- 
lication of a few of the details would be of interest to 
the readers of The Spiritualist, 

"During the week before Katie took her departure 
she gave seances at my house almost nightly, to enable 
me to photograph her by artificial light. Five com- 
plete sets of photographic apparatus were accordingly 
fitted up for the purpose, consisting of five cameras, 
one of the whole plate size, one half plate, one quarter 
plate, and two binocular stethoscopic cameras, which 
were all brought to bear upon Katie at the same 
time on each occasion on which she stood for her por- 
trait. Five sensitizing and five fixing baths were used, 
and plenty of plates were cleaned ready for use in ad- 
vance, so that there might be no hitch or delay during 
the photographic operations, which were performed by 
myself, aided by one assistant. 

"My library was used as a dark cabinet. It has 
folding doors opening into the laboratory ; one of these 
doors was taken off its hinges, and a curtain suspended 



554 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

in its place, to enable Katie to pass in and out easily. 
Those of our friends who were present were seated in 
the laboratory, facing the curtain, and the cameras 
were placed a little behind them, ready to photograph 
Katie when she came outside, and to photograph any- 
thing also inside the cabinet, whenever the curtain was 
withdrawn for the purpose. Each evening there were 
three or four exposures of plates in the five cameras, 
giving at least fifteen separate pictures at each seance ; 
some of these were spoiled in developing, and some in 
regulating the amount of light. Altogether I have 
forty-four negatives, some inferior, some indifferent, 
and some excellent. 

" Katie instructed all the sitters but myself to keep 
their^seats and to keep conditions, but for some time 
past she has given me permission to do what I liked — 
to touch her, and to enter and leave the cabinet almost 
whenever I pleased. I have frequently followed her 
into the cabinet, and have sometimes seen her and her 
medium together, but most generally I have found no- 
body but the entranced medium lying on the floor, 
Katie and her white robes having simultaneously dis- 
appeared. 

" During the last six months, Miss Cook has been a 
frequent visitor at my house, remaining sometimes a 
week at a time. She brings nothing with her but a 
little hand-bag, not locked ; during the day she is con- 
stantly in the presence of Mrs. Crookes, myself, or 
some other member of the family, and, not sleeping by 
herself, there is absolutely no opportunity for any 
preparation even of a less elaborate character than 
would be required for enacting Katie King. I prepare 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 555 

and arrange my library myself as the dark cabinet, 
and usually, after Miss Cook has been dining and con- 
versing with us, and scarcely out of our sight for a 
minute, she walks direct into the cabinet, and I, at her 
request, lock its second door, and keep possession of 
the key all through the seance ; the gas is then turned 
out, and Miss Cook is left in darkness. 

" On entering the cabinet Miss Cook lies down upon 
the floor, with her head on a pillow, and is soon en- 
tranced. During the photographic seance, Katie muf- 
fled her medium's head up in a shawl to prevent the 
light falling upon her face. I frequently drew the cur- 
tain to one side when Katie was standing near, and it 
was a common thing for seven or eight of us in the la- 
boratory to see Miss Cook and Katie at the same time, 
under the full blaze of the electric light. We did not 
on these occasions actually see the face of the medium 
because of the shawl, but we saw her hands and feet; 
we saw her move uneasily under the influence of the 
intense light and we heard her moan occasionally. I 
have one photograph of the two together, but Katie is 
seated in front of Miss Cook's head. 

"During the time I have taken an active part in 
these seances Katie's confidence in me gradually grew, 
until she refused to give a seance unless I took charge 
of the arrangements. She said she always wanted me 
to keep close to her, and near the cabinet, and I found 
that after this confidence was established, and she was 
satisfied I would not break any promise I might make 
to her, the phenomena increased greatly in power, and 
tests were freely given that would have been unobtain- 
able had I approached the subject in another manner. 



556 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

She often consulted me about persons present at the 
seances, and where they should be placed, for of late 
she had become very nervous, in consequence of cer- 
tain ill-advised suggestions that force should be em- 
ployed as an adjunct to more scientific modes of re- 
search. 

" One of the most interesting of the pictures is one 
in which I am standing by the side of Katie; she has 
her bare feet upon a particular part of the floor. 
Afterwards I dressed Miss Cook like Katie, and placed 
her and myself in exactly the same position, and we 
were photographed by the same camera, placed exactly 
as in the other experiment, and illuminated by the same 
light. When these two pictures are placed over each 
other, the two photographs of myself coincide exactly 
as regards stature, etc., but Katie is half a head taller 
than Miss Cook, and looks a big woman in comparison 
with her. In the breadth of her face, in many of the 
pictures, she differs essentially in size from her medium, 
and the photographs show several other points of dif- 
ference. 

" But photography is as inadequate to depict the 
perfect beauty of Katie's face as words are powerless to 
describe her charms of manner. Photography may, in- 
deed, give a map of her countenance; but how can it 
reproduce the brilliant purity of her complexion, or 
the ever-varying expression of her most mobile features, 
now overshadowed with sadness when relating some of 
the bitter experiences of her past life, now smiling with 
all the innocence of happy girlhood when she had col- 
lected my children round her and was amusing them by 
recounting anecdotes of her adventures in India? 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 557 

" * Round her she made an atmosphere of life ; 
The very air seemed lighter for her eyes, 
They were so soft and beautiful and rife 
With all we can imagine of the skies ; 
Her overpowering presence made you feel 
It would not be idolatry to kneel.' 

" Having seen so much of Katie lately, when she has 
been illuminated by the electric light, I am enabled to 
add to the points of difference between her and her me- 
dium which I mentioned in a former article. I have 
the most absolute certainty that Miss Cook and Katie 
are two separate individuals so far as their bodies are 
concerned. Several little marks on Miss Cook's face 
are absent on Katie's. Miss Cook's hair is so dark a 
brown as almost to appear black; a lock of Katie's 
which is now before me, and which she allowed me to 
cut from her luxuriant tresses, having first traced it 
up to the scalp and satisfied myself that it actually 
grew there, is a rich golden auburn. 

" One evening I timed Katie's pulse. It beat steadily 
at 75, whilst Miss Cook's pulse a little after was going 
at the usual rate of 90. On applying my ear to Katie's 
chest I hear a heart beating rhythmically inside, and 
pulsating more steadily than did Miss Cook's heart 
when she allowed me to try a similar experiment after 
the seance. Tested the same way, Katie's lungs were 
found to be sounder than her medium's, for at the time 
I tried my experiment Miss Cook was under medical 
treatment for a severe cough. 

"Your readers may be interested in having Mrs. 
Ross Church's and your own accounts of the last ap- 



558 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

pearance of Katie supplemented by my own narrative, 
as far as I can publish it. When the time came for 
Katie to take her farewell I asked that she would let 
me see the last of her. Accordingly, when she had 
called each of the company up to her and had spoken 
to them a few words in private, she gave some general 
directions for the future guidance and protection of 
Miss Cook. From these, which were taken down in 
shorthand, I quote the following: 'Mr. Crookes has 
done very well throughout, and I leave Florrie with 
the greatest confidence in his hands, feeling perfectly 
sure he will not abuse the trust I place in him. He 
can act in any emergency better than I can myself, 
for he has more strength.' Having concluded her di- 
rections, Itatie invited me into the cabinet with her, 
and allowed me to remain there to the end. 

"After closing the curtain, she conversed with me 
for some time, and then walked across the room to 
where Miss Cook was lying senseless on the floor. 
Stooping over her, Katie touched her, and said: 
' Wake up, Florrie ; wake up ! I must leave you now.' 
Miss Cook then awoke, and tearfully entreated Katie 
to stay a little time longer. 'My dear, I can't; my 
work is done. God bless you,' Katie replied, and then 
continued speaking to Miss Cook. For several min- 
utes the two were conversing with each other, till at 
last Miss Cook's tears prevented her speaking. Fol- 
lowing Katie's instructions, I then came forward to 
support Miss Cook, who was falling on the floor, sob- 
bing hysterically. I looked round, but the white-robed 
Katie had gone. As soon as Miss Cook was sufficiently 
calmed, a light was procured and I led her out of the 
cabinet. 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 559 

"The almost daily seances with which Miss Cook 
has lately favored me have proved a severe tax upon 
her strength, and I wish to make the most public ac- 
knowledgment of the obligations I am under to her for 
her readiness to assist me in my experiments. Every 
test that I have proposed she has at once agreed to 
submit to with the utmost willingness ; she is open and 
straightforward in speech, and I have never seen any- 
thing approaching the slightest symptom of a wish to 
deceive. Indeed, I do not believe she could carry on 
a deception if she were to try, and if she did, she would 
certainly be found out very quickly, for such a line of 
action is altogether foreign to her nature. And to 
imagine that an innocent schoolgirl of fifteen should 
be able to conceive and then successfully carry out for 
three years such a gigantic imposture as this, and in 
that time should submit to any test which might be 
imposed upon her, should bear the strictest scrutiny, 
should be willing to be searched at any time, either 
before or after the seance, and should meet with even 
better success in my own house than at that of her 
parents, knowing that she visited me with the express 
object of submitting to strict scientific tests — to imag- 
ine, I say, the Katie King of the last three years to 
be the result of imposture does more violence to one's 
reason and common sense than to believe her to be 
what she herself affirms. 

" It would not be right for me to conclude this arti- 
cle without also thanking Mr. and Mrs. Cook for the 
great facilities they have given me to carry on these 
observations and experiments." 

The reader will observe that these seances took place 



560 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

in the seventies and bear the date of 1878. Since that 
time it has been rumored that Dr. Crookes has de- 
nounced spiritual manifestation altogether. Here is 
what he says, in part, in 1898, twenty years later: 

"Sir William Crookes Addresses the British 
Association 

" At the annual assembly of that most representative 
body, the British Association, at Bristol, in 1898, Sir 
William Crookes again declared himself upon the sub- 
ject of his researches. 

" Since his first utterance, in 1874, many doubters 
had arisen who had declared that the scientist had 
swerved from his former course and no longer believed 
in the genuineness of the manifestations witnessed. His 
words before the British Association leave no doubt in 
the mind. 

"He said: *No incident in my scientific career is 
more widely known than the part I took many years 
ago in certain psychic researches. Thirty years have 
passed since I published an account of experiments 
tending to show that outside our scientific knowledge 
there exists a Force exercised by intelligence differing 
from the ordinary intelligence common to mortals. 
This fact in my life is, of course, well understood by 
those who honored me with the invitation to become 
your President. Perhaps among my audience some 
may feel curious as to whether I shall speak out or 
be silent. I elect to speak, although briefly. To ig- 
nore the subject would be an act of cowardice — an act 
of cowardice I feel no temptation to commit. 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 561 

" * I have nothing to retract. I adhere to my al- 
ready published statements. Indeed, I might add much 
thereto. I regret only a certain crudity in those early 
expositions which, no doubt justly, militated against 
their acceptance by the scientific world. My own 
knowledge at that time scarcely extended beyond the 
fact that certain phenomena new to science had as- 
suredly occurred, and were attested by my own sober 
senses, and, better still, by automatic record. 

" 6 1 think I see a little farther now. I have glimpses 
of something like coherence among the strange elusive 
phenomena ; of something like continuity between those 
unexplained forces and laws already known. This ad- 
vance is largely due to the labors of another Associa- 
tion of which I have also this year the honor to be 
President — the Society for Psychical Research. 

"'Sir William Crookes.'" 



CHAPTER XVI 

As corroborative evidence that St. Paul was a Spir- 
itualist, and when he said, " Be ye not deceived, for 
whatsoever a man sow that shall he reap," is true, I 
conclude to give you an extract from a book written 
by Beals E. Litchfield, entitled "Forty Years' Inter- 
course with the Denizens of the Spirit Spheres." 

Mr. Litchfield was a farmer who lived in the western 
part of New York State, and died, according to my 
recollection, about five years ago. 

The publisher's date of his book is 1893. 



562 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

" * In the garden of life's farming, 
'Tis best that we should know, 
That when it comes to reaping, 
We must gather what we sow.' 

** During the last six months a change has taken 
place. When the phenomena has been about to occur 
the writing has been at first presented rather indis- 
tinctly, and it would gradually become more illegible 
until it would entirely disappear ; still, the story would 
be continued by mental impression, and I soon found 
that I could exchange thoughts with those intelligences 
almost as readily as though we were both in the mate- 
rial form. And I have often given those spirits who 
came to me in their sorrow such council as I deemed 
they needed to benefit their poor sorrowing souls. I 
will give the reader two examples which will illustrate 
the condition of many who have passed the mystic 
river, and are now dwellers in some of the lower realms 
of spirit-life. 

" Not many months since a spirit came to me who 
was an entire stranger to me, and commenced telling 
me of his being a prisoner among the Indians, and 
some scenes of which he told me were indeed sad and 
sorrowful. After he had related several of those inci- 
dents I stopped him, and said : * Now, dear spirit, be- 
fore you proceed any farther, I want you to answer me 
a few questions.' This he appeared willing to do. 

"'What is your name?' 

" ' You may call me Jo. Rattler, though that is not 
my real name. I do not desire at this time to give my 
true name.' 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 563 

"'From your story thus far, it appears to me that 
you were not a very wise or good man in earth-life; 
and you are now about the same in spirit-life. Is that 
correct ? ' 

" * Yes, it is correct.' 

"'What, then, is your object in coming to me and 
relating the story of your earth-life?' 

" ' I found I could impart to you my thoughts so 
readily that I wanted to get you interested in my 
story, and then get you, if you would, to write it up 
and get it published, for it is altogether a wonderful 
experience.' 

"'What is your object in wanting it written and 
published?' 

"'If you knew my whole story, I could tell you so 
you would better understand me ; but I think there are 
some yet living in earth-life who would recognize me, 
and some of them — in fact, none of them, knew what- 
ever became of me.' 

" ' Do you desire to bless or curse humanity ? ' 

" ' I have no desire to curse humanity, and I do not 
know that I have the power to bless anyone.' 

'"Do you know there are wise and good spirits in 
spirit-life who are continually working to bless man- 
kind, and that you can become like them in knowledge 
if you so desire?' 

" ' I have heard there were such spirits, but it has 
always seemed to me as though I could never be only 
what I now am.' 

" ' Have you any desire to know more than you now 
know? to be better than you now are? and to arise 
above your present condition of life, and dwell in a 



564 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

more beautiful place than you now occupy ? ' 'I should 
be glad to do so if I could.' After giving him as good 
advice as I could, I said : ' I have some dear friends in 
spirit-life who are ever willing to help those who 
through unfortunate conditions have found themselves 
in an unhappy condition, and I think they will will- 
ingly receive you as their student if you desire them to 
do so.* 

" He replied: * It will be a great joy to me if they 
will do so. But how about my story?' I said: 'If 
you go with them you can tell them your story, and 
if they think best, and advise me to write it, then if 
you will give it to me in full, I will write it after I 
get through with my present work.' 

" He willingly and anxiously made the arrangements, 
and I telegraphed to my brother Elisha in spirit-life 
to come.* In a moment or two my brother Levi came. 

* Spirit telegrams are sent by the power of the will. 
He said * that brother Elisha, to whom I sent the dis- 
patch, was occupied with an important matter, and 
had asked him to come in his stead.' I gave my spirit- 
brother an introduction to the spirit with me, and told 
my brother the spirit's desire, which appeared to please 
my spirit-brother; and the two spirits left my room 
and departed together, and Jo. Rattler has not vis- 
ited me since to my knowledge. But I have briefly 
heard from him, so in my next illustration I shall men- 
tion. 

"A few weeks after the above-recorded interview and 
conversation, I awoke one night, and the following 
scene and conversation occurred. When I first awoke 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 565 

I was aware that some invisible being was with me who 
desired to communicate. He soon commenced giving 
me a history of his earth-life. He was very particular 
in giving the minutae, until I told him to stop, as I 
did not wish to hear any more. He seemed much af- 
fected and begged me to hear him through. He said 
he had been directed to me by a spirit whom I had 
before helped to start upon a higher and better path- 
way; and that he had come to me, hoping that after 
I had heard his story I might give him advice that 
would help him out of his sorrowful and unhappy con- 
dition. 

"From his description of the spirit who had in- 
duced him to visit me, I felt sure it was Jo. Rattler, 
the spirit I have referred to in my previous illustra- 
tion. I then told him to proceed as briefly as possible ; 
that I would listen to his story of sorrow and help 
him if I could. For which he thanked me very kindly. 
I will here give a brief sketch of his story as he gave 
it to me. 

" He said his name was John Whitman ; that he had 
formerly resided in the State of Kansas; that he was 
a well-to-do farmer until the trouble occurred which 
he was about to relate; that at that time there was 
a young man, I think he said a nephew of his, but of 
that I am not sure, but he was a relative who had given 
him much trouble, and one time the young man had 
struck him, for which he had given the young man a 
severe whipping. After the occurrence of that event he 
offered the young man a sum of money (he did not 
say how much) if he would leave the country and never 
return. The young man accepted the offer; received 



566 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

the money, and left the place. For several years he 
did not hear from him, but after several years' absence 
he returned. After his return the young man sent Mr. 
Whitman a note requesting a private interview with 
him. Mr. Whitman sent him word in reply that at 
a certain time he might visit him at his house, and he 
would give audience to him alone. At the appointed 
time the young man came, knocked at the door, which 
Mr. Whitman opened and let him in. 

" The spirit continued : * As soon as I had closed 
and locked the door, the young man drew a pistol to 
shoot me. As soon as I saw the movement I drew a 
pistol and shot him. He fell wounded, but then made 
an effort to shoot me, when I struck him with my pistol 
on his head and killed him. Soon my son came, and I 
told him what I had done. I had not intended to kill 
him, neither had I desired to do so; but who would 
believe me, now that the deed was done? My son and 
I counciled together, and the gallows seemed inevitable 
unless my deed could be kept a secret. My son and 
myself buried the body that night, and I burned the 
clothes that I wore at the time, for there was blood 
upon them. The young man was missed by the neigh- 
bors ; while some thought he had again left the coun- 
try, I felt sure, that with some, suspicion of foul play 
rested upon me. I was unhappy. My trouble seemed 
more than I could endure. At length I concluded to 
sell my property, leave the country, go to the far 
West, and settle in some place where I was entirely 
unknown, and where I could live secluded from all my 
former acquaintances. Accordingly, I disposed of all 
my effects, and with all my family moved to a far 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 567 

Western place and started a new home. We had not 
been there long when I chanced to meet a man whom 
I had known in Kansas, and I then knew that my loca- 
tion was known, and that I was liable to be arrested 
at any time. I had deeply regretted my foolishness in 
trying to keep the matter a secret. I also deeply re- 
gretted that I had not at first told the truth, and 
given myself up for trial. At length my mental suf- 
ferings became so great that I determined to return 
to Kansas, tell the truth, give myself up, and beg for 
mercy from the court. For that purpose I bade adieu 
to my family and new home, and started on my return 
trip to Kansas. While passing through Nebraska I 
was met by an officer and arrested on a charge of mur- 
der. I told the officer my story, and he said if I had 
told that story in the first place it might have cleared 
me, but after the course I had taken, it would not do, 
and of course my story would not be believed. I also 
felt that to be true. I quickly drew from my pocket 
a pistol, put the muzzle to my head and shot myself. 
To my great surprise I still lived. Though my body I 
left as a lifeless lump of clay, yet, I found I had an- 
other body that could think, feel and suffer as keenly as 
my earth body, and, worst of all, I found that I was 
still the same man, that by shooting myself I had not 
got away from myself, but memory and conscience were 
still a part of me, and as active as ever. For two years 
or more I have been wandering around my native town 
and other places seeking in vain for peace of mind to 
allay my mental suffering. I thought when I put the 
pistol to my head that the bullet would bury me in 
oblivion, and my sorrow would cease. I had no previous 



568 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

belief in a future life, but too late I found my mistake. 
I was not at heart a willful murderer, but I was not a 
good man. I had done many things which I knew at 
the time to be wrong, and my conscience was daily ac- 
cusing me of every wrong deed. Memory has been 
my accusing foe, and conscience is and has been my 
relentless judge, and from this court of justice I can- 
not find any way of escape. I have met in spirit life 
many others in the same or similar conditions of life, 
but all were unhappy, and none know how or where to 
obtain relief. And when that spirit told me that you 
gave him advice that helped him much, it gave me the 
very first hope I had found of ever obtaining a release 
from my unhappy condition, and I immedately came to 
you and the result of my visit you know. And now if 
you can give any advice that will help me out of my 
unhappy condition, I shall be very thankful for your 
kindness. 

" The following conversation then passed between us. 
I inquired if he could fully understand me in our man- 
ner of conversing? He said he could. Said I, c Since 
you left the earth form have you left the earth at any 
time, or seen any place where spirits abide except on 
the surface of the earth?' Answer: I have not and 
do not know that there is any other place. Question : 
' Have you met in spirit life the young man whom you 
so unfortunately sent to spirit life?' Answer: I 
have not, but it seems to me that every one I meet looks 
upon me as a murderer and I am very miserable. I de- 
sire to be a better man than I have been ; and, if pos- 
sible, again to be a man among men. 

" Question : Are you aware that all mankind are 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 569 

brothers and sisters, and that holding such relationship 
to each other makes it sure to follow that if we wrong 
another the result of that wrong deed falls with the 
heaviest force upon our own head? And the sorrow and 
unhappiness that you now suffer, and which you have 
been suffering, is the result, or in other words, the legit- 
imate fruit of the wrong which you have done? 

"Answer: I have never viewed human life in that 
light; it is to me a new idea. Said I, such is indeed 
the law of life ; hence a person in any condition of life 
cannot afford to do wrong. But after the wrongs are 
done, as in your case, and thousands of other cases, the 
question presents itself thus : c How can we escape the 
fires of sorrow that burn within our own soul?' We 
answer, not through c vicarious atonement, or the blood 
of Jesus ' ; for each one must atone for his own wrongs. 
Now, my dear unfortunate brother, what you need to 
know is how you can atone for your wrong deeds. And 
when you learn the way, then put it in practice; and 
through your own effort and energy, helped as you may 
be by good spirits, atone to those you have wronged, and 
thus seek salvation from your present internal hell. 
My advice is for you to seek and find the spirit of the 
young man whom you sent prematurely to spirit life. 
Tell him of the sorrow for the deed. Tell him you will 
do all in your power to atone to him for the great 
wrong you did him. Tell him you desire to be truly his 
friend, and you desire his friendship. And seek to de- 
velop within your own being, love and fraternal friend- 
ship for all mankind. That at first may not be easily 
accomplished. But you must remember that you are a 
progressive being, and contain within your being in- 



570 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

finite possibilites. And as with the rose and lily, growth 
and unfoldment are necessary to bring out and unfold 
the higher and nobler qualities of your divine and im- 
mortal selfhood. Thus through the gradual unfold- 
ment of your own inherent qualities, you may in time 
rise to a grander, more glorious, and a happier con- 
dition of life than you can now conceive of. I ask you 
as my brother, do you now desire to enter upon such a 
course of life ? If you do, I think I can get you started 
in that direction. I have friends in spirit life who are 
good, noble, and true, who are ever willing to give light 
to the blind, feet to the lame, joy to the sorrowing, and 
help the unfortunate wanderer to climb the stairway of 
progress to higher conditions of mental and spiritual 
unfoldment." 

" He replied : ' If I could enter upon such a course, 
I would be a faithful student and a thankful spirit.' 

" I then sent a mental telegram to my brother Elisha 
in spirit life to come. He soon came, joyous and happy, 
I introduced the two spirits to each other, and told my 
brother the desire of Mr. Whitman, and my brother 
said he would with pleasure help the poor sorrowing, 
pilgrim wanderer up the pathway of life to higher 
fields of thought and unfoldment. Then my brother 
said to me, * I thank you, dear brother, for calling me 
to give light to this poor, sorrowful brother. You need 
not fear to call me at any time when you find a poor 
brother who needs our assistance and we will respond to 
your telegram at any time.'" 

[Our daughter came at the same time, and requested 
me to call her if I found any poor, wandering spirits who 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 571 

needed her assistance. And in a few days after that a 
poor, sorrowing female spirit came to me seeking for 
help. My daughter quickly responded to my telegram, 
and took the poor wanderer under her kind care, and, 
I presume, to a brighter home in the higher realms of 
spirit life.] My spirit brother and his pupil left me. 
In a few weeks the spirit of Mr. Whitman returned to 
me rejoicing, and said he wanted to thank me for start- 
ing him on the road of progress. He told me that my 
spirit friends had helped him to find the young man in 
spirit life whom he had so deeply wronged, and he had 
done all in his power to atone for his crime. But in re- 
viewing the causes that led to the unhappy and fatal 
results of the young man's transition. 

It occurred in this way: In earth life each one was 
jealous of the other's honesty of purpose, and each one 
was a little afraid of the other. Hence each one pre- 
pared himself with a pistol for self-defense. When Mr. 
Whitman admitted the young man into his room and 
locked the door, he only intended to keep out intruders. 
But the young man thinking the door was locked to 
prevent his escape, drew his pistol to defend himself in 
case of an emergency, not intending to shoot Mr. Whit- 
man unless in self-defense. Mr. Whitman, misjudging 
the young man's intention, made the fatal shot, and a 
vast amount of sorrow and suffering for both of them 
was the inevitable result. " But " Mr. Whitman con- 
tinued, " we have now laid aside all feeling of ill will. 
We have again shaken hands in friendship, and we have 
decided to help each other up and along the pathway of 
life, even in the spirit spheres. And I sincerely hope 
our friendship may be as lasting as time, and as dur- 



572 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

able as eternity. I have many other wrongs to atone 
for, but none as bad as that. But my effort to atone 
for those wrongs brings me a degree of happiness which 
I did not expect to realize, when in my sorrow I first 
visited you. We shall sometime meet again. Till then 
adieu." 

" I have thus given the reader two examples to illus- 
trate the condition of thousands of poor earth-bound 
spirits, who are compelled to remain on earth for years 
after they have laid off the earth-form, and to sigh and 
weep, sorrow and suffer, as the result of their conditions 
when in earth-life. 

" Beals E. Litchfield." 



CHAPTER XVII 

There are two books extant which bear these titles 
respectively "Rending the Vail" and "Beyond the 
Vail." These two books I consider the most wonderful 
volumes that have ever appeared upon earth; and to 
those who are truly seeking for a revelation from the 
other shore, I do not know of any literature " under the 
sun " which contains internal evidence more convincing 
than does these two books. 

What may give you some idea of these wondrous 
volumes, I will quote the title page of the first named 
book and will then give -the reader a few random se- 
lections from this book, as it is exceedingly difficult 
to make a choice where the whole is of such a supra- 
mundane order. The source of the contents of this 
book, " Rending the Vail " is testified to by eight of the 
sitters, that is they make oath before a " Notary Pub- 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 573 

lie " declaring its source as set forth to the best of their 
knowledge and belief. The title page of this book. 

"The Mystic Quadruple Interrogatory. How? 
What?? Whence??? Whither???? Concerning the 
Existence of Man, and all Things, and all Being, and 
all Life, so far answered by the contents of this Book, 
as to suggest for an appropriate Title, to wit : 

Rending The Vail. 

This volume is a compilation by J. H. Nixon of 
Psychic Literature, mostly given by Spirits through 
and by means of 

Full-Form Visible Materializations. At Seances of 
a certain Psychic Research Society known as the 

Aber Intellectual Circle. The Medium being, Wil- 
liam W. Aber. It is believed, that Rending The Vail 

Is the only book in the world as a Scientific Treatise 
of Phenomenal Spiritualism, claiming its principal mat- 
ter to be uttered by Excarnate Human Spirits while in 
condition of Visible Reincarnate Form." 

These Seances were held at Spring Hill, Kansas. 

These selections can give you but a vague idea of the 
significance of this book in its entirety. The messages 
written by these materialized Intelligences ranged from 
four hundred to eight or nine hundred words per min- 
ute. 

This book with the seance records one hundred and 
twenty-six in all, and the written and vocal communica- 
tions make a book of something over five hundred 
pages. The other book "Beyond the Vail" is about 
the same in size. 

There was quite a number of Spirits engaged in this 
work. 



574 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

I will give a selection from Spirit Dr. Reed the chem- 
ical control as the first. With this heading, " It Were 
Better That the Child be Taught Spiritualism, than 
Trained to Lie, Cheat and Steal from the Public. 

" Friends I wish I had the power to teach Spiritual- 
ism universally. I believe nine-tenths of the crimes of 
your calendar would never occur if the truths of Spirit- 
ualism were universally known; and I believe if the 
little street urchins were taught that they were ever 
guarded by some loved one who has passed out, instead 
of being trained to lie, cheat and steal from the public, 
how different their lives would be. Could these poor 
little outcasts be taught to realize that their loved ones 
wept over every wrong act, their lives of toil would 
not seem such a sacrifice, but they would gladly toil 
for the praise of those they loved. 

" I am acquainted with one spirit in particular, who 
passed out in a tenement of one of your large cities. 

M This woman was, by nature and education, fitted for 
the life of a lady ; but, after her husband passed away, 
leaving her with one child to care for (a little boy of 
four), she met with one reverse after another, and her 
fair-weather friends passed her by without a word of 
recognition. She was too proud to apply at her old 
home for work and made the mistake of going to a 
large city to seek employment. 

" She struggled for six years to support herself and 
child, but her naturally frail constitution gave way 
under the pressure of hard work and ill food. 

" Thi9 woman knew nothing of Spiritualism, but was 
a devoted Christian and had trained her little boy in 
that faith. He was a bright sensitive child, and adored 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 575 

his mother. At last her overworked frame refused to 
move any more; and with her child's hands clasped 
within her own, she bade him ever to remember Jesus 
was watching over him and would care for him. With 
a tender kiss of farewell on her lips, her spirit took its 
flight, and the poor broken-hearted child was left in the 
world alone! 

" Days and weeks went by, and still his prayers were 
not answered, and the trusting child began to think, 
mamma must have trusted Jesus too much, for he don't 
seem to help me as she said he would. 

" How much better it would have been if that mother 
could have told her darling that his mother would 
always watch over him and care for him, even though 
she was called to another home. That child would have 
known that his mother would have kept her word. That 
would have been a lesson he could have understood. If 
he could have realized that his mother's pure spirit was 
watching over him daily, he would not have lost faith 
in mankind, and would not be wearing the dress of a 
criminal as he is to-day. He would have loved his 
mother as he did before she passed away. Even now, 
the memory of her love helps to brighten her dreary 
path. 

(Signed) "Reed." 

This spirit gave seventy-six writings. I can give 
you but one of them together with his last effort: his 
benediction : 

Friends, it is glorious to be able to thus stand be- 
tween the denizens of the two worlds, and, in behalf of 



576 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

the spirit realms, proclaim and demonstrate to you 
mortals the continuance of life to a home beyond the 
tomb; to let you know that death is but a change of 
homes — a moving out of one house of habitation into a 
more delightful house — a more enduring home. 

Oh, what a thrill of joy runs along the corridors of 
the " many mansions " as the immortal occupants 
thereof learn of the advancement among earth's people, 
of this superlative truth ! " May you receive the teach- 
ings and knowledge with benefit to yourselves and teach 
the good news to inquiring minds." 

" Reed." 

This Dr. Reed, when in the mortal form practiced 
medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, and passed to spirit 
life some twenty years ago. 

A selection from the writings of William Denton, 
" who was born at Darlington, England, about May % 
1823, and came to America in early life. For a few 
years he taught school, and then went to lecturing. He 
became distinguished as a geologist and naturalist, and 
while in search of data for science and natural history, 
on the island of New Guinea, in 1883, lost his life to the 
physical. He was the author of several books. 

His No. 46 Writing 
Man's Resistance To New Science Or Religion 

" Man has always, as far back as we can learn, re- 
sisted the onward march of any new science or religion 
for fear some of the teachings of the new science or 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 577 

religion may come in conflict with some of his own 
cherished ideas. 

"Prove that he is in error and he will attack you 
with arguments based on that very error. But, one 
after another, they fall from him as the grain falls 
before the scythe of the reaper ; and he will be just as 
stubborn in defense of the new as he was of the old. 

"Man should be ready at any time to investigate 
anything new that comes before him; for if it be an 
untruth, he need have no fear that the truth will go 
down before it, and if it be a truth, he should investi- 
gate and known its teachings thoroughly. 

"As to some other of your questions, we have said 
before in this circle that the God of the Christians is a 
myth. They regard God as a personal being and when 
they do this they limit his power. God is in and a part 
of everything that exists. The God principle would be 
a better name than God; for the God principle is the 
good within any living thing. It is just as impossible 
to see God as it is to see gravitation. You can witness 
the effect of any force, but you never see the force it- 
self. You know messages are sent every hour, streets 
are lighted, and cars drawn by the force you call elec- 
tricity but no one has been able yet to define electricity. 
No one can tell you whether it is a solid or a 
fluid. 

" Man, in his ignorance, supposed God was a person, 
a being, little higher than the human ; but at this age 
in the world's history it is time for man to reason and 
know for himself that God is spirit, and not a personal 
being seated on a throne, 

(Signed) Denton." 



578 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

I am approaching the limit but I feel that this work 
would be incomplete were I to omit William Denton's 
concluding oration. This spirit contributed for this 
book "Rending the Vail" forty-nine writings, and 
fifty-one orations. I give place for but one of these 
writings and this is his concluding effort in oratory. 

Oration No. 51 

"Spirit Denton, in visible form, stands before us, 
and with more than ordinary vigor and voice volume, 
through the trumpet, said: 'Good-evening, friends. I 
see the gentleman [Mr. Pratt] has no subject for me 
to-night. Well, that is all right. I want you to say 
to him (his hearing was at times defective) that, as 
the evening shades are lengthening very rapidly, and 
soon, according to the course of nature, his work on 
earth must close ; that his friends on this side are glad 
to say to him that his determination to use his remain- 
ing physical force and finance in the good work of 
promulgating this grand, glorious, and ennobling truth 
gives them joy, and is building for him an habitation 
of which he will rejoice when he reaches this fair coun- 
try. There is no other way that he could have labored 
in his declining years that would have brought him so 
great reward. 

" ' I want to say to all of you that this is a glorious 
work in which you mortals are joining with us now. 
Such a work has never before been accomplished ; deni- 
zens of immortal glory so far rolling back the veil that 
separates between the two worlds as for the spirits to 
stand clothed again as you did know them before their 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 579 

transition; and, in attitude perceptible to your sight 
and hearing and understanding, write to you, and talk 
to you, and illustrate to you of the evidences of con- 
tinued existence, and of the inexpressible beauty and 
grandeur of the immortal home of the soul. 

"'When you review and re-review our work, you 
will continually be more and more surprised at how it 
is builded. You will see every point well guarded 
against the most pointed darts of criticism. 

" * You will see that we begin with the simplest les- 
sons and gradually take the student, step by step, 
along the whole psychic course until, when he is versed 
in our course, he will see an invulnerable structure. 

" ' I want to say to you that we have a work here 
that will stand, and all the powers of the opposition 
to this sublime truth shall not avail to blot it out. 
Notice our work of art. Here comes a form — you see 
the form. The form has power of speech to the ca- 
pacity of any of you. You hear its wonderful words. 
You, at the same time, see it stand before you in the 
attitude and expression of the highest eloquence. You 
see it writing, and you find it has written a wonderful 
writing. You find its penmanship a marvel in swift- 
ness of execution, construction, and scientific instruc- 
tion. The form gives you its name, and while you are 
beholding the form, another form is seen by you. 

"'This other form says he is sketching the likeness 
of the former one, and with incredible swiftness exe- 
cutes a portrait and hands it to you; and lo! you be- 
hold the picture of the person the first form said him- 
self to be. 

"'Where on earth is the sane-minded person to 



580 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

gainsay or that is able to tear down our syllogism? 
No, friends, ignorance may throw mud, but reason, 
enlightened reason, must surrender to the psychic con- 
clusion. 

"'I want to say to you that there is art in the 
spirit-world. Art beyond the loftiest imagination of 
any intelligence while tabernacling in the tenement of 
clay. 

" * Could you conceive for one moment the most 
gifted artist in the mortal, after reaching his highest 
attainments on the earth-plane, transplanted to a 
school where no hindering environments are found, and 
continue in that school under the tutorship of high- 
spiritual intelligences for a thousand years, you might 
be able to form some faint conception of what an 
artist is in the spirit-world ; but it is not for the little 
children of earth, while in the mortal, to even dream of 
the grandeur of the artistic designs of high-spiritual 
intelligences. 

" 4 Oh, my friends! you will find this the real side 
of life. And you will find that, while all of the earth 
is transient and passeth away, the unspeakable glory, 
the arts, the sciences, the architecture of the spirit- 
world are enduring! I want to say one word more 
now. Soon most of you, and but a little while at far- 
thest, you will all pass to our side of life. We know 
the obstacles in your way. We know what some of 
you have had to endure and overcome. When it is 
yours to move out of the earthly house, then your 
friends gone before with outstretched hands will meet 
you at the gates and hold them ajar: while you, with 
your wealth of spirituality, pass into the eternal light 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 581 

and glory of the spirit-world, and joyous happy 
throngs will be your escort to your several homes in 
spirit-spheres, which you will find your course of life 
on earth to have embellished accordingly for you. 

« « Work faithfully on ; for, as you thus build, so 
will be your home here — builded by your own earth 
career. 

"'William Denton.'" 

A selection or two more from another contributor 
to this book, "Rending the Veil": Thomas Paine, the 
patriot in the time of our Revolutionary struggle. 

Writing No. 1 

"Friends, there is not an orthodox religious news- 
paper in the world that will publish the facts concern- 
ing Spiritualism. Yet in the face of facts like these, 
certain Christians have told you that you must believe 
the Bible or be damned eternally. 

" The Christians are still worshiping a savage God, 
whom they suppose to be the parent of a merciful and 
benevolent son, who died to save the world; but the 
lingering superstitions of the savage mind still haunt 
their imaginations, and they regard every manifesta- 
tion from the spirit-world to be of Satan; but the 
conceit of their half-deluded minds is a striking com- 
ment upon the efficacy of their system to save them- 
selves from the imaginary wrath of an angry God. 

" They are never at peace long enough to have a 
generation born free of the taint of blood and strife; 
and their religious tenets all reflect the mental bias 



582 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

of the people that have never conceived of any greater 
powers of peace and benevolence of men than that in- 
stilled by this angry Divine Creator. 

"This abhorrent doctrine is still taught in your 
temples of learning, and ghastly symbols stand before 
your altars. 

" Think such people should be conceited enough to 
claim the final destiny of the human race to be at the 
disposal of their (angry) God is not surprising, for 
they have attempted to conquer and possess the whole 
earth as their personal possessions, and such minds are 
ever ambitious to be rulers in the world eternal. 

" The Christian world is not spiritual, but material ; 
and its ideas of the life eternal are nearly all erro- 
neous. 

(Signed) "Thomas Paine." 



Writing No. 4 

"What myths and what superstitions have sprung 
from the religious world ! How it has cursed the race ! 
Its pathway is written in blood, and it forges manacles 
for those who dare to question. Banish this God, and 
you will have liberty. Do away with the fables about 
an immortal soul, and the world will no longer be slaves 
to the fear of death. 

"You have had enough of theories and myths and 
superstitions. What you want is demonstration. 

"Friends, if mankind during all these ages had not 
been so amazingly narrow in their mental grasp, hid- 
ing, as it were, the universe by holding a single book 
too near the eyes ; if they had dared to cultivate their 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 583 

reason and their spirit perceptions, they could have 
gleaned the rich things there are now being revealed 
here to-night — they would have omitted that which was 
false and immoral. 

(Signed) "T. Paine." 



Writing No. 3 

"Friends, examine your Bible and see the mass of 
confused and contradictory nonsense deluding as to 
the teachings of the one you call Jesus. See the ridic- 
ulous light in which his character is represented, with 
qualities neither befitting a man or God, both of which 
he is represented to be; and his coming to the world 
in a most ridiculous and unnatural manner — assuming 
to have a mission which he never performed, to have 
power that he never exercised in defense of himself or 
his friends; and also assuming to be sent to people 
who would not receive him, and preaching his mission 
to those to whom he was not sent. 

" And, again, he proposes to be a man of peace, and 
that all mankind, by him, shall be blessed ; yet he says 
that he was not sent to ' restore peace but the sword.' 
If you will examine all of the writings of the New 
Testament, you will find them to be a compilation of 
contradictory statements, predictions, absurdities and 
mythical nonsense, too disgusting for good intelligent 
persons to read and give credence. 

"There is one exception I will make as regarding 
my statements, and that is the doctrine of a future 
life for man. That is actually true, as I have found it 
since coming here into spirit-life. 



584> PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

" For eighteen hundred years the minds of men have 
been overspread with a gloomy, destructive supersti- 
tion that has been entailed upon them. The Christian 
dogmas have enveloped the people with the grossest 
and darkest of ignorance, and it has prevented them 
from making any advances — moral or intellectual. And 
nearly all those who have endeavored to enlighten and 
liberate their fellow-men have been crushed out of the 
physical existence. 

"Bloody wars have deluged your earth in nearly 
every country, as the result of the damnable doctrines 
that have been preached to mankind in the name of 
Jesus Christ. 

(Signed) "Paine." 



Oration No. 9 

Thomas Paine Is Back Here to Tell to the World 
What He Knows Now 

" Good-evening, friends. I am glad to meet you here 
in this way. Our glorious work is moving on, and I 
am truly glad that it is progressing with such rapid 
strides throughout the world. No discovery in the do- 
main of science ever yet made greater progress among 
the people in a single half-century than the great sci- 
entific fact of a demonstrable future for man has since 
its enunciation, less than fifty years ago. 

"Yet strange indeed is it that so great a boon to 
the race must fight its way everywhere. 

"Fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, children, broth- 
ers, and sisters, everywhere mourning, sorrowing, weep- 
ing, wailing, as they look into the desolate grave or 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 585 

behold the empty chair ! Will not hear the good news, 
will not look as the angels draw the veil aside. 

" And when the white-robed kindred ' over there ' 
would draw near, would sing again the old home re- 
frain, they are driven away; the gentle caressing of 
an angel mother is denounced as the scheming of some 
diabolical fiend. 

" Oh, friends ! when I look upon the floods of tears 
that might be dried away, when I behold the millions 
of sorrowing hearts that might be comforted, but for 
the intervention of a designing priesthood who live fat 
upon the sorrowings of desolate hearts, my soul sickens 
and determines me to go on with the warfare of break- 
ing the fetters that bind so many millions of precious 
souls to a mercenary sacerdotalism founded on the 
fables of an imaginary God. 

" This God, through the priesthood as his medium, 
has in all ages fought with fire and sword, shot and 
shell, gibbet and guillotine, prison and proscription, 
slang and slander, the advocates of the advent into 
your earth among the children of men of anything 
calculated to lessen the iron grip that the priest has 
had upon men and women. 

"They would murder a Bruno for daring to think 
for himself. 

" They would lead upon the scaffold an innocent 
Quaker woman because it was reported than an angry 
God had said, ' Suffer not a witch to live.' 

"In the infancy of astronomy its advocates must 
recant or burn at the stake, because this imaginary 
leader of the priesthood had been reported as saying 
something about the four corners of the earth. 



586 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

"The great science of phrenology was tabooed be- 
cause it was at variance with the supposed teaching of 
their supposed God ; and geology, too, must be scoffed 
because it teaches that, instead of the six days of cre- 
ation, millions of ages were consumed. • 

"Thus, step by step, science has shown that the 
theological ideas of God are false, and that what the 
theologians have heretofore taught to be the true God 
have not been and are not God at all, but merely false 
or ignorant conceptions of the true God. 

" Oh, if my orthodox friends were here to-night, I 
would scorch them to the very quick; only desiring, 
however, to have them exchange their remaining igno- 
rance for eternal truth. 

" I do not come back here for nothing, nor to advo- 
cate theories ; but to tell you what I know." 

Thomas Paine remarked in one of his orations that 
if he did not speak of the Bible some might doubt it 
being Thomas Paine. He seems to not have forgotten 
his work while in the mortal, both as a patriot and 
liberator from the bonds of bigotry. 

St. John said, in concluding his gospel, " That if all 
Christ said during his three years' ministry had been 
recorded, that he supposed the world could not con- 
tain the books that should be written." 

I could hardly make as extravagant an assertion as 
this in regard to the Spiritual Phenomena that has 
taken place since 1848, but the amount I have here 
given would be but a drop in the bucket comparatively ; 
and the evidence is rapidly accumulating. 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 587 



CHAPTER XVIII 

I had expected this oration from Thomas Paine to 
conclude my work along this line — of phenomena Spir- 
itual. But just recently there came to hand an article 
by William T. Stead, editor the Review of Reviews — a 
publication put out in Great Britain — and upon read- 
ing it, thought I must expand my book-covers sufficient 
to give it place. 

"How He Knows the Dead Return — Record of 
Personal Experience 

" Cecil Rhodes once told me that early in life he had 
devoted much thought to the question whether or not 
there was a God. He came to the conclusion that there 
was a 50 per cent, chance that there was a God, and 
therefore that it was a matter of the first importance 
to ascertain what God wanted him to do. In like fash- 
ion, I would ask the reader to consider whether or not 
there is any proof that the conscious life of his per- 
sonality will persist after death. If he examines the 
evidence he will probably come to the conclusion that 
there is a certain per cent, chance that such is the 
case. He may put it at 50 per cent., at 90 per cent., 
or at 10 per cent., or even at 1 per cent, of chance 
that death does not end all. In face of the fact that 
the immense majority of the greatest minds in all ages 
have firmly believed that the personality survives death, 
he will hardly venture to maintain that he is justified 
in asserting that there is not even a 1 per cent, chance 
that he will not go on living after his body has re- 



588 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

turned to its elements. Of course, if he should be 
absolutely convinced that not even such an irreducible 
minimum of a chance exists that he may be mistaken, 
if he thinks that he knows he is right and that Plato 
and the Apostle Paul were wrong, I beg him to read 
no further. This article is not written for him. I am 
addressing myself solely to those who are willing to 
admit that there is at least an off chance that all the 
religions and most of the philosophies — to say nothing 
of the universal instinct of the human race — may have 
had some foundation for the conviction that there is a 
life after death. Put the percentage of probability as 
low as you like, if there be even the smallest chance of 
its truth, it is surely an obvious corollary from such 
an admission that there is no subject more worthy care- 
ful and scientific examination. Is it a fact, or is it not? 
How can we arrive at certainty on the subject? It 
may be that this is impossible. But we ought not to 
despair of arriving at some definite solution of the ques- 
tion one way or the other, until we have exhausted all 
the facilities for investigation at our disposal. Noth- 
ing can be less scientific than to ignore the subject and 
go on living from day to day in complete uncertainty 
whether we are entities which dissolve like the morning 
mist when our bodies die, or whether we are destined to 
go on living after the change we call death. Assum- 
ing that I carry the reader so far with me, I proceed 
to ask what kind of evidence can be produced to justify 
the acceptance of a belief in a persistence of person- 
ality after death, not as a mere hypothesis, but as an 
ascertained and demonstrable fact? 

"The recent applications of electricity in wireless 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 589 

telegraphy and wireless telephony, while proving noth- 
ing in themselves as to the nature or permanence of 
personality, are valuable as enabling lis to illustrate 
the difficulties as well as the possibilities of proving the 
existence of life after death. 

"In order to form a definite idea of the problem 
which we are about to attack, let us imagine the grave 
as if it were the Atlantic Ocean, as it appeared to 
our forefathers before the days of Christopher Colum- 
bus. In order to make the parallel complete, it is nec- 
essary to suppose that the Atlantic would only be tra- 
versed by vessels from east to west, and that the ocean 
currents or strong easterly gales rendered it impossible 
for any voyager from Europe to America to return 
to the Old World. We shall thus be able to form a 
simple but perfectly clear conception of the difficulties 
which I am about to discuss. 

"If Christopher Columbus after discovering Amer- 
ica had been unable to sail back across the Atlantic, 
Europe would after a time have concluded that he had 
perished in an, ocean which had no further shore. If 
innumerable other voyagers had set out on the same 
westward journey, and had never returned, this convic- 
tion would have deepened into an absolute certainty. 
Yet Christopher Columbus and those who followed him 
might have been living and thriving and founding a 
new nation on the American continent. 

" What would have happened in those circumstances ? 
In all probability the faith even of the most ardent 
believers in the reality of Columbus' great vision would 
have grown dim. If it did not altogether die out, it 
would be due to the fact that from time to time, in 



590 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

the dreams of the night, their friends saw him alive 
and well in a strange new world. But everything would 
be shadowy and unreal as a dream. 

"Now let us transport ourselves from the time of 
Columbus to our own day. We must assume that the 
original physical impossibility of crossing the Atlantic 
from west to east still continues. But in the interven- 
ing centuries the men who had crossed from east to 
west have increased and multiplied, and have built up 
a great nation with an advanced civilization on the 
American continent. Like us, they discover teleg- 
raphy; like us, they invent and use the telephone. 

"After a time they discover and apply the principle 
of wireless telegraphy, and after that they perfect the 
wireless telephone. The terrors of the unknown would 
not daunt forever the intrepid spirits of European ex- 
plorers. A ship or ships would be equipped to cross 
the Atlantic. When their crews and passengers landed 
on the further shore, they would discover, to their in- 
finite amazement, not only that a vast continent existed 
within five days steam from Liverpool, but that those 
who were thought to have perished had founded a great 
commonwealth in the New World. What would imme- 
diately happen? 

"The newcomers, finding themselves unable to re- 
turn, would at once endeavor to utilize all the resources 
of modern science to enable them to communicate their 
great discovery to the Old World. They would en- 
deavor to perfect and extend the use of wireless teleg- 
raphy, so as to enable them to flash the good news to 
their friends on the European shore. At first they 
would fail from the lack of any receiving station on 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 591 

this side. But after a while, by some happy chance, a 
wireless message from America might be caught on 
some seacoast Marconi station. 

"When that message arrived, how would it be re- 
ceived? In all probability it would be fragmentary, 
incoherent, and apparently purposeless. It would be 
set down to some practical joker or regarded as some 
random message sent out from somewhere in Europe. 
And so for a long time the attempt to communicate 
information would fail. After an interval a more co- 
herent message would arrive. Efforts would be made 
to answer, but the replies might not arrive when any- 
one was in attendance at the other side; the instru- 
ments might not be properly attuned, the messages 
might be so mutilated as to be unintelligible. A few 
cranks who had never lost the faith, traditional and 
dim, that there was a world beyond the seething waste 
of waters, would go on experimenting, wasting time 
and money, and exposing themselves to the ridicule of 
the scientific world. 

" At last, after innumerable disappointments, it is 
possible that the captain of the last exploring expe- 
dition might succeed in getting through a message, 
clear, direct to the point, such as this: 'From Cap- 
tain Smith, of the Resolute SS., to Lloyds, London. 
Alive and well. Discovered new world filled with de- 
scendants of Christopher Columbus and his men.' 

"What would follow the receipt of such a marconi- 
gram? It would probably arrive so many years after 
the expedition had sailed that no one would at first 
remember who Captain Smith was. Whether records 
were looked up, and the existence of the ship and its 



592 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

commander recalled, there would be some sensation, and 
a good deal of discussion. Efforts to reach the un- 
known land would be renewed, but the ma j ority of prac- 
tical, common-sense men of the world would regard the 
message as a practical joke, while the men of science 
would prove to their own complete satisfaction the ab- 
solute impossbility of any such new world existing, 
and a fortiori, of any such message being authentic. 

" But after a time more messages would come. Some 
method would be discovered of dispatching replies and 
receiving answers. At last the scientific world would 
wake up to the recognition of the fact that a prima 
facie case had been made out for the strange, the al- 
most incredible phenomena that seemed to point to the 
possibility that there was another world beyond the At- 
lantic, and that its inhabitants could by means of wire- 
less telegraphy communicate with Europe. The diffi- 
culties they would encounter would be the identical 
difficulties which confront us in our quest for certainty 
as to life after death. But, with patience and perse- 
verance and careful allowance for the obstacles in the 
way of trans-oceanic intercourse, the existence of the 
American continent would in the end be established as 
firmly as I believe the existence of the Other World 
is very soon about to be established beyond all question 
or cavil. 

"I will now leave the illustration and address my- 
self directly to an explanation of the evidence which 
has convinced me of the reality of the persistence of 
personality after death. I may make the prefatory 
remark that I have what is called the gift of auto- 
matic handwriting. By that I mean that I can, after 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 593 

making my mind passive, place my pen on paper, and 
my hand will write messages. The next question is 
whether this system of automatic telepathy — which 
corresponds to wireless telegraphy on land— can be ex- 
tended to those who have crossed the river of death — 
an extension which corresponds to the transmission of 
marconigrams across the Atlantic. 

"Upon this point I will again relate my own expe- 
rience. I had two friends, who were as devoted to each 
other as sisters. As is not unusual, they had promised 
each other that whichever died first would return to 
show herself to the other in order to afford ocular 
demonstration of the reality of the world beyond the 
grave. One of them, whose Christian name was Julia, 
died in Boston shortly after the pledge was given. 
Within a few weeks she aroused her friend from her 
sleep, in Chicago, and showed herself by her bedside, 
looking radiantly happy. After remaining silent for 
a few minutes, she slowly dissolved into a light mist, 
which remained in the roof for half an hour. Some 
months after, the friend in question came to England ; 
she and I were staying at Eastnor Castle, in the west 
of England, when Julia came back the second time. 
Her friend had not gone to sleep. She was wide awake, 
and again she saw Julia as distinct and as real as in 
life. Again she could not speak, and again the appari- 
tion faded away. 

"Her friend told me about the second visit, and 
asked me if I could get a message from Julia. I of- 
fered to try, and next morning before breakfast, in my 
own room, my hand wrote a very sensible message, 
brief, but to the point. I asked for evidence as to the 



594 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

identity of the transmitter ; my hand wrote, ' Tell her 
to remember what I said when last we came to Minerva.' 
I protested that the message was absurd. My hand 
persisted and said that her friend would understand it. 
I felt so chagrined at the absurdity of the message 
that for a long time I refused to deliver it. When at 
last I did so, her friend exclaimed, 'Did she actually 
write that? Then it is Julia herself, and no mistake.' 
* How,' I asked, bewildered, * could you come to Mi- 
nerva ? ' * Oh,' she replied, ' of course you don't know 
anything about that. Julia shortly before her death 
had bestowed the pet name of Minerva upon Miss Wil- 
lard, the founder of the Women's Christian Temper- 
ance Union, and had given her a brooch with a cameo 
of Minerva. She never afterwards called her anything 
but Minerva, and the message which she wrote with 
your hand was substantially the same that she gave 
me on the last time when Minerva and I came to bid 
her good-by on her deathbed.' Here was a slight mis- 
take : Minerva had come to her, instead of Julia going 
to Minerva, but otherwise the message was correct. 

" I then proposed that I should try for more mes- 
sages. My friend sat at one end of a long table, I 
sat at the other. After my hand had written answers 
to various questions, I asked Julia, as another test of 
her identity, if she could use my hand to call to her 
friend's memory some incident in their mutual lives of 
which I knew nothing. No sooner said than done. My 
hand wrote: 'Ask her if she can remember when we 
were going home together when she fell and hurt her 
spine.' ' That fills the bill,' I remarked, as I read out 
the message, c for I never knew that you had met with 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 595 

such an accident.' Looking across the table, I saw that 
my friend was utterly bewildered. * But, Julia,' she 
objected, ' I never hurt my spine in my life.' ' There,' 
said I, addressing my hand reproachfully, c a nice mess 
you made of it! I only asked you for one out of the 
thousand little incidents you both must have been 
through together, and you have gone and written what 
never happened.' 

" Imperturbably, my hand wrote, c Iam quite right ; 
she has forgotten.' 'Anybody can say that,' I re- 
torted; 'can you bring it back to her memory?' 
'Yes,' was the reply. 'Go aheajl,' I answered; 'when 
was it?' Answer: 'Seven years ago.' 'Where was 
it?' 'At Streator, in Illinois.' 'How did it happen?' 
' She and I were going home from the office one Sat- 
urday afternoon. There was snow on the ground. 
When we came opposite Mrs. Buell's house she slipped 
her foot on the curbstone and fell and hurt her back.' 
When I read these messages aloud, her friend ex- 
claimed, 'Oh, that's what you mean, Julia! I remem- 
ber that quite well. I was in bed for two or three days 
with a bad back ; but I never knew it was my spine that 
was hurt.' 

"I need not multiply similar instances. The com- 
munication thus begun has kept up for over fifteen 
years. I have no more doubt of the existence and the 
identity of Julia than I have of the existence of my 
wife or my sister. 

"Here we had the appearance of the deceased in 
bodily form twice repeated on fulfillment of a promise 
made before death. This is followed up by the writing 
of messages, attested first by an allusion to a pet name 



596 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

that seemed to reduce the message to nonsense, and, 
secondly, by recalling to the memory of her friend with 
the utmost particularity of detail an incident which 
that friend had forgotten. No other medium was con- 
cerned in the receipt of these messages but myself. I 
had no motive to misrepresent or invent anything. As 
my narrative proves, I was skeptical rather than cred- 
ulous. But things happened just as I have put them 
down. Can you be surprised if I felt I was getting 
into communication with the Beyond? 

"It will be said by some of those who will not give 
me the lie as to the accuracy of the foregoing nar- 
rative, that it does not carry us beyond telepathy from 
the living, This may be admitted, if telepathy from 
the unconscious mind is regarded as an actual fact. 
In this case the unconscious mind telepathed what the 
conscious mind of the transmitter had entirely forgot- 
ten. The hypothesis of telepathy from the unconscious 
mind of the living can be invoked to account for almost 
any message said to be transmitted by the dead. But 
there is one class of messages for which telepathy from 
incarnate minds, conscious or unconscious, cannot ac- 
count. That is the class of messages which relate 
neither to past nor present events, but which foretell 
an event or events which have still to happen. 

" Julia, on the very day on which she gave me the 
test messages recorded above, made a prediction, which 
was given me not really as a prediction, but as a 
friendly warning intended to save another friend from 
making engagements which she would not be able to 
keep, as at a certain time she would be three thousand 
miles away, in England. My friend laughed the warn- 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 597 

ing to scorn. The prediction was twice repeated, and 
both times treated with contempt. Engagements were 
entered into which, when the time came, had to be can- 
celled, because my friend found it necessary to go to 
the distant place which Julia had named, and as Julia 
had predicted. 

" It will be objected that the prophecy in this case 
may have helped to bring about its own fulfillment. 
Let us admit that for the sake of argument. The same 
objection cannot be urged against the next item of evi- 
dence I am about to produce. Some years ago I had 
in my employment a lady of remarkable talent, but of 
a very uncertain temper, and of anything but robust 
health. She became so difficult that one January I 
was seriously thinking of parting with her. Julia 
wrote with my hand, ' Be very patient with E. M. ; she 
is coming over to our side before the end of the year.' 
I was rather startled, for there was nothing to make 
me think that she was likely to die. I said nothing 
about the message, and continued her in my employ. 
It was, I think, about January 15 or 16, when the 
warning was given. 

" It was repeated in February, March, April, May, 
and June, each time the passage being written as a 
kind of reminder in the body of a longer communica- 
tion about other matters. * Remember E. M. is going 
to pass over before the end of the year.' In July, 
E. M. inadvertently swallowed a tack. It lodged in 
her appendix, and she became dangerously ill. The 
two doctors by whom she was attended did not expect 
her recovery. When Julia was writing with my hand, 
I remarked, 'I suppose this is what you foresaw when 



598 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

you predicted E. M. would pass over.' To my infinite 
surprise, she wrote, 'No; she will get better of this. 
But all the same she will pass over before the year is 
out.' E. M. did recover suddenly, to the amazement of 
the doctors, and was soon doing her usual work. In 
August, in September, in October, and in November, 
the warning of her approaching death was each month 
communicated through my hand. In December, E. M. 
fell ill with influenza. * So it was this,' I remarked to 
Julia, 'that you foresaw.' Again I was destined to be 
surprised, for Julia wrote, c No ; she will not come over 
here naturally. But she will come before the year is 
ended, she coughed badly, and was expecting to be re- 
moved to a nursing hospital, where she could receive 
better attention. All the time I was with her she 
talked of what she was going to do to carry out her 
work.* 

" I was alarmed, but I was told I could not prevent 
it. Christmas came. E. M. was very ill. But the 
old year passed, and she was still alive. * You see you 
were wrong,' I said to Julia. ' E. M. is still alive.' 
Julia replied: 'I may be a few days out, but what I 
said is true.' 

"About January 10 Julia wrote to me: 'You are 
going to see E. M. to-morrow. Bid her farewell. Make 
all necessary arrangements. You will never see her 
again on earth.' I went to see her. She was feverish, 
and when I bade her good-by I wondered if Julia was 
not mistaken. Two days after I received a telegram in- 
forming me that E. M. had thrown herself out of a 
four story window in delirium, and had been picked up 
dead. It was within a day or two of the end of the 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 599 

twelve months since the warning first was given. This 
narrative can be proved by the manuscript of the orig- 
inal messages, and by the signed statement of my two 
secretaries, to whom, under the seal of secrecy, I com- 
municated the warnings of Julia. No better substan- 
tiated case of prevision written down at the time, and 
that not once but twelve times, is on record. How- 
ever you may account for it, telepathy, conscious or 
unconscious, breaks down here. 

"The lady whose initials were E. M. and whose 
tragic fate I have just described, had promised me 
that if she died before me she would do four things. 
She had constantly written automatically during her 
life. She promised, in the first place, that she would 
use my hand if she could, after death, to tell me how 
it fared with her on the other side. In the second 
place, she promised that, if she could, she would ap- 
pear to one or more of her friends to whom she could 
show herself. In the third place, she would come to 
be photographed, and, fourthly, she would send a mes- 
sage through a medium, authenticating the message by 
countersigning it with the simple mathematical figure 
of a cross within a circle. 

"E. M. did all four. (1) She has repeatedly writ- 
ten with my hand. 

"(£) She has repeatedly appeared to two friends of 
mine, one a woman, the other a man. She appeared 
once in a dining-room full of people. She passed un- 
seen by any but her friend, who declares that she saw 
her distinctly. On another occasion she appeared in 
the street in broad daylight, walked for a little dis- 
tance, and then vanished. I may say that her appear- 



600 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

ance was so original it would be difficult to mistake her 
for anybody else. 

"(3) She has been photographed at least half a 
dozen times after her death. All her portraits are 
plainly recognizable, but none of them are copies of 
any photographs taken in earth-life. 

"(4) There remains the test of a message accom- 
panied by the sign of a cross within a circle. I did 
not get this for several months. I had almost given 
up hopes, when one day a medium who was lunching 
with a friend of mine received it on the first attempt 
she made at automatic writing. 'Tell William not to 
blame me for what I did. I could not help myself,' 
was the message. Then came a plainly but roughly 
drawn circle, and inside it the cross. No one knew of 
our agreement as to the test but myself. I did not 
know the medium. I was not present, nor was my 
friend expecting any message from E. M. 

" Is it surprising, then, that after such experiences 
I have no more doubt of the possibility of communi- 
cating with the so-called dead than I have of being 
able to send this article to the Fortnightly Review? 

M I have referred to spirit photography. Let me dis- 
arm any skeptical reader by admitting that nothing is 
more easy than to bogus spirit photographs, and fur- 
ther that an expert conjurer can almost always cheat 
the most vigilant observer. The use of marked plates, 
which I handle, expose and develop myself, no doubt 
affords some protection against fraud. But my belief 
in the authenticity of spirit photographs rests upon 
a far firmer foundation than that of the fallible vigi- 
lance of the experimenter. The supreme test of an 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 601 

authentic spirit photograph is that a plainly recog- 
nizable portrait of a dead person shall be obtained by 
a photographer who knows nothing whatever of the 
existence of such a person, and that no visible form 
shall be seen by the sitter in front of the camera. 

" I have had such photographs, not once, but many 
times. I will here only mention one. The photog- 
rapher whose mediumship enables him to photograph 
the invisibles is a very old and rather illiterate man, 
to whom this faculty was at one time a serious hin- 
drance to his photographic business. He is clairvoyant 
and clairaudient. During the late Boer war I went 
with a friend to have a sitting with him, wondering 
who would come. I had hardly taken my seat before 
the old man said : ' I had a great fright the other day. 
An old Boer came into the studio carrying a gun. He 
fairly frightened me, he looked so fierce. Said I to 
him, " Go away ; I don't like guns." And he went away. 
Now he's back again. He came with you. He has not 
got a gun now, and he does not look fierce. Shall we 
let him stay?' 

"'By all means,' I replied. 'Do you think you 
could get his photograph ? ' 

"'I don't know,' said the old man; 'I can try.' 

" So I sat down in front of the camera, and an ex- 
posure was duly made. Neither my friend nor I could 
see any other person in the room but the photographer 
and ourselves. 

"Before the plate was removed I asked the photog- 
rapher: 'You spoke to the old Boer the other day. 
Could you speak to him again ? ' 

"'Yes,' he said; 'he's still there behind you.' 



602 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

" * Would he answer any question, if you asked him ? ' 

" * I don't know,' said the old man ; * I can try.' 

"'Ask him what his name is.' 

" The photographer appeared to put a mental ques- 
tion, and to listen for a reply. Then he said: 

" ' He says his name is Piet Botha.' 

"'Piet Botha,' I objected. 'I know Philip, Louis, 
Chris, and I do not know how many other Bothas, but 
Piet I never heard of.' 

'" That's what he says his name is,' doggedly re- 
plied the old man. 

" When he developed the plate there was seen stand- 
ing behind me a hirsute, tall, stalwart man, who might 
have been a Boer or a Moujik. I said nothing, but 
waited till the war came to an end, and General Botha 
came to London. I sent the photograph to him by 
Mr. Fisher, who was Prime Minister of the Orange 
Free State. Next day Mr. Wessels, another Free 
State delegate, came to see me. 

" ' Where did you get that photograph,' he asked, 
'the photograph you gave to Mr. Fisher?' I told 
him exactly how it had come. 

"He shook his head. 'I don't hold with supersti- 
tion. Tell me, how did you get that portrait? That 
man did not know William Stead — that man was never 
in England.' 

"'Well,' I replied, 'I have told you how I got it, 
and you need not believe me if you don't like. But 
why are you so excited about it?' 

" ' Why,' said he, c because the man was a near rela- 
tive of mine. I have got his portrait hanging up in 
my house at home.' 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 603 

" c Really,' I said. « Is he dead? 9 

"'He was the first Boer commandant killed in the 
siege at Kimberly.' 

"'And what was his name? 5 

"'Pietrus Johannes Botha,' he replied; 'but we al- 
ways called him Piet Botha for short.' 

" I still have the portrait in my possession. It has 
been subsequently identified by two other Free Staters 
who knew Piet Botha well. This at least is not a case 
which telepathy can explain. Nor will the hypothesis 
of fraud hold water. It was the merest accident that 
I asked the photographer to see if the spirit would 
give his name. No one in England, so far as I have 
been able to ascertain, knew that any Piet Botha ever 
existed. 

"What is wanted is that those who profess to be- 
lieve in the existence of life after death should honestly 
attempt to define the kind of evidence which they would 
consider convincing. I have narrated in this paper 
what seems to me conclusive evidence of the continu- 
ance of personality after death. 

"All these incidents occurred in my own personal 
experience. Their credibility to my readers depends 
upon their estimate of my veracity. These things ac- 
tually occurred as I have written them down. Sup- 
posing that they had happened to you, my reader, 
could you refuse to admit that there is at least a prima 
facie case for a careful, exhaustive scientific examina- 
tion into the subject? What more evidence, what kind 
of evidence, under what conditions, is it wanted, before 
conviction is established? 

"I ask no one hastily to accept anything on other 



604 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

people's testimony. It is true that all people are not 
mediums, any more than all telephones can take Mar- 
coni messages. I am fortunate in being my own me- 
dium, which eliminates one possible hypothesis. But 
there are plenty of honest mediums, some possibly in 
your own family, if you cared to seek them. 

"One last word. For the last fifteen years I have 
been convinced by the pressure of a continually accumu- 
lating mass of first-hand evidence of the truth of the 
persistence of personality after death, and the possi- 
bility of intercourse with the departed. But I always 
said, 'I will wait until some of my own family has 
passed beyond the grave before I finally declare my 
convictions on this subject.' 

" Twelve months ago this month of December, I 
saw my eldest son, whom I had trained in the fond 
hope that he would be my successor, die at the early 
age of thirty-three. The tie between us was of the 
closest. No one could deceive me by fabricated spuri- 
ous messages from my beloved son. 

" Twelve months have passed, in almost every week 
of which I have been cheered and comforted by mes- 
sages from my boy, who is nearer and dearer to me 
than ever before. The preceding twelve months I had 
been much abroad. I heard less frequently from him 
in that year than I have heard from him since he passed 
out of sight. 

"I have not taken his communications by my own 
hand. I knew him so well that what I wrote might 
have been the unconscious echoes of converse in the 
past. He has communicated with me through the 
hands of two slight acquaintances, and they have been 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 605 

one and all as clearly stamped with the impress of 
his own character and mode of thought as any of the 
letters he wrote to me during his sojourn on earth. 

" After this I can doubt no more. For me the prob- 
lem is solved, the truth is established, and I am glad 
to have this opportunity of testifying publicly to all 
the world that, so far as I am concerned, doubt on this 
subject is henceforth impossible." 



CHAPTER XIX 

THE CHRIST QUESTION 

" I have a few more words I wish to say in regard to 
the Christ question. 

" I have said that I had no doubt but there was a 
man crucified about the time of the beginning of the 
Christian era, upon which all of this thing called Chris- 
tianity — /the great central dogma of the world — has 
attached. 

"I will now give you my reason for believing this. 

"This personage has come to us as many as four 
times — my wife and me — at our circle. At least he 
told us he was the same man that was crucified in con- 
sequence of his trying to free his people — the Jews — 
from the yoke of bondage in which the Jewish priest- 
hood had for ages held them. 

"He told us that all of the miraculous connected 
with his history was myth and priestly fabrication. 

" That he came into the world the natural way, and 
by trying to make better conditions for the common 
people of his race, he was crucified. 



606 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

" He told us that it was made known to him by the 
laws of communication that there obtain, that we much 
wished to know the truth concerning this Christ ques- 
tion ; so he came purposely to enlighten us. 

"Are we deceived? That I cannot tell, but do not 
think so. If Spiritualism is true, why should we doubt 
this? 

"I asked him if he had difficulty in reaching those 
in the mortal, having been on that side of life so long. 
He said he could reach those in the mortal when it 
was necessary. 

" My wife — being clairvoyant — was deeply impressed 
with his appearance. 

"Are we deceived? Here is a thing Christ is said 
to have said: * Where two or three are gathered to- 
gether in my name there will I be in the midst. 5 If 
he said this, what reason have we to doubt that he met 
with us upon these several occasions? 

" Do we believe since Christ was crucified he has be- 
come Omniscient, Omnipotent and Omnipresent? If so, 
he must necessarily have lost his individuality, because 
Infinity cannot be individualized, and if individualized 
he could be only in one place at a time. So he could 
not answer the conditions where he is required in a 
thousand places at the same time, where this text is 
repeated in prayer and in testimony, throughout all 
Christendom. 

" Are we deceived ? If Spiritualists are deceived, my 
friends, they will never be accused on the other side of 
the great divide, of this deception, by their Protestant 
or Catholic brothers ; nor will the Materialist say, 
'There, what did I tell you?' We will never accuse 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 607 

each other of teaching heresy; we will all be sleeping 
our eternal sleep, and the deception here upon the 
earth will sweep on. 

"And who is responsible for the deception?" 



CHAPTER XX 

CONCLUSION 

A brief analysis of the "Golden Rule" seems neces- 
sary at this time, that my position may be understood. 
There are many subtleties and chances for misinterpre- 
tation to this much referred to and often quoted rule. 
I will cite an example or two. One which may appeal 
to the mind of the reader as well as any that occurs 
at this time is that which led to the War of the Re- 
bellion — 1861-1865. Our nation, a Christian nation 
cemented together by the same code of morals — -the 
Bible — the freeholders of both Northland and South- 
land could study their " golden rule " and make each 
for himself his interpretation. 

The freeholders of the South interpret their " Book " 
and claim that by divine right they can hold in bond- 
age the negro population that they have transplanted 
there. They were ready and willing to extend this 
right and privilege to their Northern brothers as an 
application to this " Golden Rule," but in this case poor 
Sambo and Dinah are left clean out of the reckoning. 
Another application of the Golden Rule: Here stands 
in front of a saloon a patron of the bar longing for a 
drink ; how pleased he would be should some of his con- 



608 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

vivial friends chance along and invite him to take a 
drink; he sees one of these friends coming down the 
street; the application of this Golden Rule occurs to 
him. I will ask him to drink with me; the invitation 
is accepted and alternately the Golden Rule is applied 
and the wassail continues. And here again a wife and 
offspring may be suffering in consequence of this 
money squandered, but they are left entirely out of the 
reckoning. 

The application of this Golden Rule may be carried 
a step farther, and I would ask you to give here your 
careful consideration. Here is a flourishing town 
favored by conditions of manufacture and commerce, 
and supports several denominational Christian 
churches ; the ministers of these churches have lived to 
learn that harmony is better than discord, and as an 
application of the Golden Rule they frequently hold 
union service and frequently exchange pulpits, and ex- 
press themselves to each, that all the prosperity which 
they behold throughout all Christendom is owing to 
the Bible and their work, the Christian religion, and 
are willing to shake hands and congratulate each 
other upon the success of the churches and of Chris- 
tianity. 

With present-day knowledge and all that may be 
brought to bear upon this subject, — the higher " criti- 
cism" of the Bible and all arrayed against the claims 
of dogmatic Christianity, are they honest to their con- 
victions, and are they applying the Golden Rule in its 
broadest sense to a hungry, benighted and dying 
world? If they do not firmly believe all they teach 
and preach, they certainly are not practicing this 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 609 

Golden Rule in its full measure, which they for cen- 
turies have admonished their flocks to follow. 



Am I a Spiritualist? I make no claim to having 
attained to a state of spiritual unfoldment that would 
entitle me to the name of Spiritualist, but if a belief 
that those who have passed this stage of being here 
on earth still live and that they can hold con- 
verse with those in the mortal constitutes a 
Spiritualist, then I am one, and this volume that 
I expect to give to the world I have aimed to 
make conform to this "Golden Rule," so that it 
will square with all the angles of human conscience 
that my finite mind can grasp. I certainly think I 
would have been thankful indeed, despite the imper- 
fections that may be pointed out by critics, if a volume 
like this had have fallen into my hands at any time 
in my life after reaching the years of understanding 
up to the time of the dawn of this glorious truth. 
Then I would ask, " Should I pander and truckle to 
the opinions and teachings of error because they are 
established in the minds of erring humanity and because 
they are popular?" 

In my endeavors to point out the proof that the 
Bible is of human origin and is not entitled to the 
claims made for it, I have aimed to avoid invective and 
vituperation. There is much from necessity that has 
to be omitted along these lines for lack of space; but 
the student can study his Bible and supply the defi- 
ciency. 



610 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

I pondered long the question whether to give my 
views to the public upon this inflammatory subject, or 
let my thoughts sink into oblivion with my personality 
and let the problem work itself out as it might. How 
I have decided is apparent. Whether I have chosen 
wisely rests with the uncertainties of the indefinable 
future. 

Is Spiritualism a delusion? I have taken pains to 
show that it is the factor that is woven into the world's 
history, back through the primitive ages — the period 
of Bible-making — and that it is the same, and is oper- 
ative through the same law now as then. If Spirit- 
ualism is true, what then? What should be the rational 
attitude of mankind toward it? Is it wise to say I 
care nothing for it? The Bible and the churches are 
good enough for me ; that has been my ancestral rock 
of salvation for generations back, and I do not wish 
my faith disturbed. Readers, if Spiritualism is true, 
it was true before your Bible or your creed had birth, 
and will remain so to the end of time and for the 
countless ages of eternity, and all of the opposing 
power of pope and priest, allied with the combined 
force of the whole Protestant offshoot, cannot avail to 
blot it out. You may retard its progress on earth for 
a time, but the time is drawing to a close. 

Perchance, you may be led to think that I am to 
receive a royalty upon all converts to Spiritualism, and 
for this reason I am trying to persuade men. No, I 
do not see how your belief could directly affect me one 
way or the other: except harmony is better than dis- 
cord, and discord must be the result where error is 
rampant. 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OP REASON 611 

I doubt not if this truth of Spiritualism was under- 
stood, and the world's conduct was shaped accordingly, 
we would have a much better world to live in than we 
have now. 

What could have emanated from the human mind 
more unreasonable than the tenets of the Papal Church 
— that sins can be absolved by man for a certain 
money consideration, that said sin is thereby cancelled 
and the transgressor is free? 

Again, on the other hand, how could there have 
been a scheme devised where ignorance could be taken 
advantage of to accrue revenue that would prove more 
fruitful than this of this Holy Papal See? And when 
it was inculcated upon the mind that the individual 
could transgress — providing he did not commit the 
"unpardonable sin" — for seventy times seven four 
hundred and ninety times and still be forgiven by com- 
ing down with the required fee? 

As a financial scheme, I should say it was su- 
preme. 

The better enlightened Protestant churches of the 
present day look upon the Mother Church in this same 
light, that her plan was oppression and extortion, and 
that ignorance is the prime factor necessary to her 
perpetuity. 

Then, after making this admission, let us make a 
few comparisons between the Mother and the Protes- 
tant churches of our day, and see if they are invul- 
nerable to the arrows of reason. 

The power of forgiveness has reverted back to the 
Master, and your manifold sins are washed away by 
his atoning blood. The same number of transgressions 



612 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

may be absolved, and these at the eleventh hour, so the 
preceding eleven-twelfths of your life — if you live as 
you expect to — you are free to steep in sin and crime 
if the civil, man-made law of the commonwealth does 
not overtake you. 

Though this plan may not be so grinding as the 
preceding one, but, as has been the burden of my 
argument, and as is attested to by our arisen friends, 
this also is unreasonable and untrue. Again, you, in 
order to be an up-to-date Christian, must associate 
yourself with some one of the orthodox churches, in 
order to hear the Gospel preached in modern style, and 
in responding to all of the calls made upon you in 
the name of the Christian religion, which must be paid 
for in cold cash by the members of the flock, so there 
is considerable similarity between the parent and her 
offspring. 

It is free salvation, but the cost of dispensing 
comes pretty high if you would maintain your stand- 
ing. 

In regard to emolument, the clergy seems in no way 
to differ from the ordinary man of the world. They 
all seem to want all they can get, despite the injunc- 
tion of the Master — as I have been informed upon what 
I call good authority that certain among them for 
their services have not objected to the modest sum of 
fifty thousand dollars per annum. 

I take no pleasure in speaking or writing derogatory 
of the orthodox churches, only to point out that which 
I feel certain is error; and that is, unfortunately, the 
larger portion of their creed and the foundation upon 
which it rests, the Bible, as it is taught, " a revelation 
from God." 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 613 

But I do take pleasure in advocating the teachings 
of Spiritualism, because I am thoroughly convinced of 
the genuineness of Spiritual phenomena — (bear in 
mind, fraudulent phenomena is not Spiritual phenom- 
ena and is nothing I expect to deal with in this work, 
only to speak of it to let you know I am conscious of 
its existence) — and the rationality of its teachings, 
purporting to come from our friends who have crossed 
the Great Divide. And what I censure the Christian 
churches for at the present day is for ignoring, calum- 
niating, and treating with aspersion the proof upon 
which their own claim or hope of immortality rests — 
Spirit Return, Spirit Communion, Spiritualism Dem- 
onstrated. 

If Spiritualism is not true, St. Paul's testimony and 
all of his epistles are not worth one straw; for when 
he speaks concerning Spiritual gifts, he proves abso- 
lutely that the power through which he was converted, 
and his course of procedure was changed, that the 
cause he espoused was Spiritualism as it manifests it- 
self and is understood to-day. 

It does not matter particularly what else he may 
have said, or how what he said may have been tor- 
tured into, or what may be appended that he never 
said at all, that orthodoxy may use for texts, this main 
thing stands out full and clear, and all of the inven- 
tions in the way of priestly or orthodox veneering or 
interpolation cannot cover it up. And when he says, 
"Be ye not deceived: for whatsoever a man soweth 
that shall he reap," shows that the communications 
from the spirit-world were the same then as to-day, 
and that the same eternal truths were given to Paul 



614 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

that our arisen friends give us to-day. And again, 
when he speaks of his being translated to the third 
plane of the spirit-realm, makes the proof to the stu- 
dent of psychic research conclusive and knocks the 
foundation clean from under the orthodox claim " that 
Spiritualism is of evil." 

Spiritualism, with its cumulative proof, both an- 
cient and modern, is my abiding joy and actuates me 
to lend a helping hand in the promulgation of these 
eternal truths. 

Some of my readers may say: "If your claim be 
true, your book is a pretty small affair to stand against 
the thousands of volumes in the way of commentaries, 
sermons and homilies, and all of the innumerable pub- 
lications written in support of the Christian religion." 

This may look so to the superficial observer, and I 
can only say that Falsehood, though clothed in regal 
splendor and declared by all the verbosity and ingenu- 
ity that blind zeal can invent, will never make it true. 
The wrong you do, you must atone for; there is no 
escape from the consequences of sin. Is this unreason- 
able? Could we reasonably wish it otherwise? Does 
not our innate nature repudiate this doctrine of un- 
loading our sins upon another? 

Suppose in the advent of Modern Spiritualism the 
communications had have been on the side of orthodox 
Christianity, and those who returned were those whose 
robes had been washed and made white in the blood 
of the Lamb, and that the population in heaven was 
comparatively small, because the great majority had 
taken the broad road that led to destruction, and the 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 615 

most of their friends in earth-life were in hell, where 
the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched; but 
they themselves were supremely happy in being saved 
and in singing songs of praise to God and their Savior 
— would our orthodox friends have tumbled to Spirit- 
ualism in this case? And which would be the pleasanter 
revelation — this, or Modern Spiritualism as revealed by 
our spirit-friends who come down the shining highway 
to tell us these eternal truths, " that perfect justice is 
the law and that none are eternally lost, and that a 
helping hand is extended to the most depraved soul 
and they are shown the way that leads to better con- 
ditions " ? 

To those who, perchance, may read this book and 
be as ignorant as was I a few years ago in regard to 
Spiritual literature, and may be desirous, as was I, to 
farther investigate the subject, to such I would say 
there is at present The Progressive Thinker, edited by 
J. R. Francis, No. 40 Loomis St., Chicago, 111.; The 
Sunflower, published by the Hamburg Publishing Co., 
Hamburg, N. Y. These papers are both weeklies, at 
$1.00 per year. Here is a monthly journal called 
Reason, at Rochester, N. Y. ; price $1.00 per year. 

In taking some one of these papers you will be in 
touch with the Spiritual literature in the way of books 
and papers, and you may be astonished to find what 
a mine of knowledge is opened up to you. 

It was somewhere about sixteen years ago that a 
traveling show struck an adjoining town, and there waft 



616 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

considerable excitement over a woman that sat on a 
platform blindfolded, and a man moved amongst the 
crowd and whatever was exhibited to this man he asks 
the woman what such and such things are; she tells 
him; he asks her to farther describe if there was any 
reading on it, whatever that might be, and she would 
tell him with unerring precision. There was consid- 
erable excitement at the time Over it, some declaring 
against it on principles that it was contrary to natural 
law, and that it was but a trick if they could only 
catch on. I made earnest inquiries in regard to con- 
federates, mirrors, and the like, as I was not to the 
show myself. A few days later I was at this town and 
was speaking of this phenomenon, and there was a 
man, a stranger to me, he seemed an intelligent man 
and one whose trend of thought seemed to lead in the 
same direction with my own. He told me he did not 
attend the show when it was in his home town, but 
upon hearing this account it aroused his curiosity and 
he decided to follow it up to its next place of exhibi- 
tion. He said he took his little girl with him. When 
this woman was on exhibition and the man was at his 
work as usual, this man said he felt in his pockets to 
see what he might find to be described by this blind- 
folded woman; and it happened to be a trunk-check. 
The man says, "What has this gentleman got in his 
hand? " She said, " A trunk-check." Said he, " What 
are the figures?" She replied, "3-2-3-2." Then he 
said his little girl felt in her pockets and brought out 
a small knife. The man said, "What has this girl 
got?" "A penknife." The man telling this said: 
" In place of a blade in one part of the knife was a 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 617 

little hook" — he did not know what it was for — but 
the man said, "There is something more about this 
knife; what is it?" Ans. "A button-hook." 

He said this was the case in every instance, that the 
answers came promptly, with no mistakes, and that it 
had so wrought upon his mind that he had lain awake 
nights thinking about it. 

I asked him about the possibility of collusion. He 
said it was nonsense to think of trying to explain it 
in that way, as it was in the crowd where she could 
not possibly see; besides, she was blindfolded and had 
her back to them. I saw the inconsistency of urging 
an explanation of this kind. 

This was before I had any knowledge of Spiritual- 
ism, and I had become very skeptical about man's sur- 
viving the death of the body ; but this led me to think 
seriously that if a human mind has capabilities like 
this, there may be more about life than we may think. 

I here speak of this human attribute, telepathy or 
mind reading, to show with what incredibility it was 
first received; but after it had forced its way into 
recognition and could no longer be disputed by the 
intelligent observer, and has now become an acknowl- 
edged fact. Telepathy is now used by those who once 
declared against it as a weapon now with which to 
fight Spiritualism. And thus it goes. 

I am in no* way worried in regard to the fate of 
Spiritualism; if it is true, as I certainly believe — and, 
I might say, know — there need be no solicitude in re- 
gard to its future. It is oppressed and down-trodden 
humanity that I would be pleased to help. It is evi- 
dent that the line along which civilization has been 



618 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

moving for some decades back is going to bring us 
face to face with terrible disaster, to be followed by 
disaster, just as has been in ages past, and will con- 
tinue until we get ourselves in harmony with the Truth, 
which, I am impelled to believe, is vested in the teach- 
ings of Spiritualism. 

The bondholder and millionaire may laugh at this, 
but there has been laughing done in the ages past at 
those who have pointed out impending calamities ; but 
their laughter did not assuage it then, nor will it now. 

Reader, what will be the state of affairs on earth 
five hundred years in the future? You say you do not 
know; nor do I. But I do not believe there will be a 
crucified God preached as the only hope of salvation 
to a sin-cursed world then as now. I think the world 
will have outgrown this error before that period is 
reached. It is talked and thought by progressive 
Christians that the time is coming when all of the dif- 
ferent creeds will have coalesced into one religion. 
This is not irrational to believe, but the question is, 
What will be the tenets of this newly evolved religion? 
It will be unstable and of little worth unless founded 
on the bedrock of truth and justice. 

We read in the Scripture of the stone that the 
builders rejected. What was this stone? You say 
Christ was the stone referred to. That may be true, 
but this passage can be used in a much broader sense 
and a more rational application, when the world comes 
to discover that this rejected stone most appropriately 
applies to Spiritualism. 

And when Christ said, "Verily, I say unto you, he 
that believeth on me the works that I do shall he do 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 619 

also, and greater works than these shall he do, 5 ' will 
then be better understood, and faith will then indeed be 
changed to sight, and the poor tempest-tossed, buffeted 
earth-pilgrim can then receive the earnest of his hopes 
and desires — a life to follow this, with just as good 
conditions as you have earned, and always a chance 
for promotion. 

Dear friends, suppose in place of your weekly prayer 
meetings, where the burden of your testimony is to 
have your spiritual strength renewed, your faith 
strengthened, and to have your doubts removed, and 
for God to help your unbelief, and that you may re- 
main steadfast, etc. — suppose, in place of this, you 
should convene in your chapel, and with a subdued 
light you should all clasp hands and wait for the mani- 
festation of the spirit — what wonderful results you 
soon would get! In a gathering like this, where har- 
mony prevailed, you would ere long have it discovered 
to you that you would have sensitives among you, 
through whom the old-time wonders would be made 
manifest, that the Christian supposes to have passed 
from earth two thousand years ago, would be found to 
be with you "just the same to-day." It would seem 
that when our friends came greeting from across the 
Great Divide and identified themselves so that there 
could be no mistake, and they would instruct you in 
regard to making good conditions so that they could 
better manifest themselves to you, and could unfold 
the mysteries of life and being and of the great oppor- 
tunities of the soul immortal, that this would be a 
greater joy than what you are getting now, material- 
ism would then be compelled to make its exit, and it 



620 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

would seem that we could get a foretaste of heaven 
while yet on earth. 

Will this time ever come? I do not see why it is 
unlikely. I would take pleasure in your prayer meet- 
ings then, at least I certainly think I would. 

This is the kind of prayer meeting that Bishop 
Haven recommends in his message, "Appeals to the 
Methodists." Bishop Haven passed out in 1880. This 
little tract was written by the hand of a most excellent 
mechanical writing medium, Mrs. Carrie E. S. Twing, 
in Springfield, Mass., in February, 1890. I wish every 
Methodist were in possession of a copy and would read 
it, and every member of the other Christian creeds as 
well. 

This plan, I certainly believe, was Christ's will and 
wishes, and was without doubt his expectation when 
he gave to the world his last benediction. Who ever 
could have dreamed what was to follow after Christ 
took his departure? 

To the psychic student of the present day, with the 
history of the past for him to scan, and knowing as 
he does the depravity of man in his incipient stage on 
earth, his proclivity to selfishness, that these Spirit- 
ual Truths should have been obscured and obliterated 
by the greed of a priestly hierarchy, is not so much 
to be wondered at. But that this fraud should go 
sweeping on, in spite of Reason and demonstrated 
Truth, at this intellectual age — the twentieth century 
— and with free access by all to this Christians' Book 
(the Bible) upon which their claim rests, baffles the 
mind of sober, thoughtful man versed in this modern 
religious science: Spiritualism. 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 621 

CHAPTER XXI 

And what is Spiritualism? Possibly the definition 
of this word has not been properly "defined ; so I will 
give three definitions, by three men prominent in the 
ranks of this New-Old Religion : 

[By Harrison D. Barrett] 
" Spiritualism is the opposite of Materialism, and 
stands for the real and permanent instead of the seem- 
ing and transitory. It is the psychic phenomena that 
are produced under certain favorable conditions. It is 
the science builded upon such phenomena, based upon 
known facts demonstrated by them. It is the philos- 
ophy deduced from known facts when logically ar- 
ranged. It is a religion that binds into a perfect sys- 
tem the demonstrated facts in both psychic and physi- 
cal science, crowning its work with a positive demon- 
stration of the continuity of all life, and the relation 
of finite life to the Infinite. 

" Spiritualism, then, is fourfold in its nature : It 
binds these four several parts into one whole, through 
which comes in a system of thought far in advance of 
any that the world has yet received. Given a phenom- 
enon, this proves that there is a positive force at work 
to produce a certain result. Like results are produced 
from a series of similar phenomena, all proving the 
existence of this independent force. Further investi- 
gation proves that this force is intelligent, capable of 
logical thought and power to reason; from this is de- 
duced the fact that there is mentality back of the 



622 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

force producing such phenomena. The relation of these 
phenomena, one to the other, shows that there are many 
mentalities beyond the pale of the physical, all uniting 
to testify to one and the same fact. Science is knowl- 
edge experimentally demonstrated. Experimentation 
in the psychic field demonstrates the fact that an in- 
telligent entity has survived the change called death. 
As physical science deals with material phenomena, so 
psychic, or the higher science, deals with the real phe- 
nomena of the spiritual. Through the facts deduced 
by so-called physical science, the philosophers have 
proceeded to speculate in regard to the cosmos, the 
origin and destiny of man. From the facts demon- 
strated by psychic science, the higher philosophy is 
deduced that is predicated upon the knowledge of what 
the cosmos is, from whence man came, and what his 
future destiny will be. It clearly proves another point 
concerning which theologians and philosophers have 
speculated in vain for centuries : the demonstration of 
the Infinite enthroned in the universe. It is the prov- 
ince of Spiritualism, then, to do all of these things 
enumerated above. It gives us the phenomena, the sci- 
ence, the philosophy, which, when blended into oneness, 
gives to the world at last a religion that is provable 
both by induction and deduction, by scientific demon- 
stration, and spiritual revelation. It is a religious sci- 
ence and a scientific religion, a religious philosophy and 
a philosophical religion. It gives to the world knowl- 
edge of the future, and has no negatives or specula- 
tions to offer to those who investigate its sublime 
teachings. The theologian and Christian say, 'I be- 
lieve'; the agnostic says, 'I don't know'; while the 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 623 

materialist affirms annihilation of man's consciousness 
at the change called death. Spiritualism has one an- 
swer to all of these speculations, and in two words 
solves the difficult problem for all mankind, saying, ' I 
know* Knowledge is power, and as Spiritualism knows, 
it has something positive to give to the world in place 
of blind belief, credulity, and creedal speculations. 

" Spiritualism is the demonstration that man sur- 
vives the change called death, is the same conscious 
individual as before, has the same weaknesses, the same 
tendencies, the same mentality as before; that man 
enters upon spiritual life at the time of change with 
all his preconceived ideas, all of his peculiar views con- 
sciously in mind. It shows that he rises in the scale 
of being in ratio with his desire for such unfoldment 
and progress. It is the demonstration also that this 
progress is not interrupted by the change called death, 
but is rather enhanced because of the larger views that 
the emancipated spirit will have of life and its possi- 
bilities. It is the demonstration that the soul-world 
is the only real, and that so-called matter is transitory 
in its nature and unenduring in its potentialities. It 
is also the demonstration that this spiritual or soul- 
world has within it the possibilities of eternal progres- 
sion and unfoldment for every human soul. It is also 
the positive demonstration of the fact that these souls, 
emancipated from the thraldom of the flesh, do not lose 
their love for those they left on earth nor their inter- 
est in their moral and spiritual welfare. It further 
demonstrates that life is as eternal as it is infinite in 
its power. The father and the mother lose not their 
affection for their children, nor the children for their 



624 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

parents, the husband for his wife, the wife for her hus- 
band, the lover for the maiden of his choice, nor the 
friend for the companion in friendship of his soul. It 
brings to all this knowledge instead of faith and hope, 
and shows them the larger light of the clearer truth 
that the soul-world has for every sentient being. Spir- 
itualism, then, is the knowledge of life here and here- 
after, the binding of the two worlds into one, the de- 
stroyer of materialism, the builder of the Spiritual 
Kingdom of God in the hearts and souls of men, the 
messenger that flies from point to point with the glad 
tidings of great joy that there is no death. It is the 
phenomena of all the ages, the science of all sciences 
the philosophy of all philosophies, and the religion of 
all religions. 

"' Blest river of progression, 

Pursue thy onward way; 
Flow thou to every nation, 

Nor in thy richness stay. 
Stay not till all the lowly 

Triumphant reach their home, 
Stay not till all the holy 

Proclaim: "The truth is come." ' 

" Spiritualism is the beautiful child of our father 
Wisdom and our mother Love, the healer of all dis- 
eases, the illuminator and destroyer of all darkness, the 
remover of the veil of ignorance and fear, the giver of 
light and knowledge, the sustaining friend in the hour 
of trial, the comforter in the hour of death, the dem- 
onstrator of immortality, the leader of men's souls to 
the hilltops of truth, the emancipator from the serf- 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 625 

dom of creeds, the purveyor of life, and enters into 
man's soul wheresoever it finds him, and leads him up- 
ward over the winding paths of truth into the temple 
of the Infinite, where he shall find that peace which 
passes understanding, makes him truly free, and proves 
the fatherhood of the Infinite, the motherhood of Na- 
ture, and the universal brotherhood of all mankind. 

"What, then, is Spiritualism? It is that which 
proves, first, the existence of Infinite Life, diffused and 
differentiated through the universe ; second, that which 
proves that Truth reveals the Infinite and gleans wis- 
dom for men ; third, that which demonstrates that every 
soul is immortal; fourth, that which proves that eter- 
nal progression awaits every human soul; fifth, that 
which shows spirits can and do return to earth to 
prove to man that they have conquered death; sixth, 
that which gives to men and women of the present time 
the principle of sympathy that makes life's burdens 
easier to bear, and, seventh, brings the knowledge from 
the higher life that love is the lever by which all 
classes of men can be lifted to higher thought and 
action. 

"Taken all in all, it is the highest system of scien- 
tific, philosophical, and religious thought that the 
world has ever seen, and will, if adopted, prove the 
panacea for all social, political, and other ills that now 
beset the human family. Investigate its sublime teach- 
ings and learn for yourself, reader, that there is no 
such thing as Death, but that all is Life, and that 
Life is Love — 

" * Love that shall be 

Our joyous rest eternally.'" 



626 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 



WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM? 

[By Hudson Tuttle] 

"What is Spiritualism? 

"Is it the phenomena? Yes. 

"Is it the philosophy? Yes. 

"Is it the science? Yes, all and vastly more. It 
is the science of life here and hereafter. It is a cos- 
mology whose book of Genesis is written in the chaotic 
vapor out of which the plastic world-zones were fash- 
ioned; whose historic pages relate in the alphabet of 
worlds and upheaved strata the evolution of the mate- 
rial universe; whose revelations extend out of the 
clouds of this life into the pure realm of spirit. 

" A Spiritualist should understand the revelations of 
this infinite volume. It would be impossible to do so 
perfectly, but the desire should exist and the effort 
constantly be made, for it is assured that some time 
the spirit in its upward flight will realize all our minds 
idealize. 

"With such high aspirations, with the knowledge 
that man is an epitome of. the universe, the concentra- 
tion of its energies, and endowed with the sublime heri- 
tage of immortality, there comes a new and most beau- 
tiful moral philosophy, entering into the practical de- 
tails of common life. If this moral system is under- 
stood, man becomes too noble to do wrong, to waste 
his energies, to do aught but the highest, the truest 
and the best. Facing two worlds, held by the laws of 
matter while in the body, he should confortn to the re- 
quirements of his condition and meet the tasks mate- 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 627 

riality imposes, not for the gain of the hour, not for 
earthly recompense, the sordid, the selfish, the aggres- 
sive, only so far as has relation to advancement in the 
future. Of that life the present is the beginning and 
the preparation. Whatever dwarfs, mars, degrades, or 
distorts the spirit, as an eternal entity whose goal is 
perfection, is evil, wrong or sin. 

" Righteous is the compliance with the laws and con- 
ditions of the material world in the direction of the fur- 
therance of spiritual perfection. Religion is the high- 
est expression of the perfect moral character, not ob- 
servance of customs ; the making of prayers and sac- 
rifices ; the belief in dogmas and creeds, but devotion to 
the highest conception of truth, right for right's own 
sake, and the perfection of self by unselfish activity for 
the good of others. Would you then have the Spirit- 
ualist ignore the manifestations? By no means. They 
are the evidences of future existence, leading upward 
to this grander conception. Mediumship, rightly un- 
derstood, as a state of receptivity to the thoughts of 
spirit-friends as helpers and advisers, is one of the most 
desirable possessions. Such receptivity in some degree 
is possessed by all, and being susceptible to cultivation, 
it is in every respect more desirable to perfect one's 
self than to investigate through other sources. Recep- 
tivity in this high sense becomes a most important edu- 
cational factor. It is one of the possibilities of the 
future to encourage the culture of the sensitive faculty, 
and the results will be far more wonderful in normal 
education than now arises from what seems abnormal 
and the product of chance. In other words, the musi- 
cal genius of a Blind Tom, or the mathematical of a 



628 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

Colburn, and similar proficiency in every department 
of knowledge, may be the rule and not the rare excep- 
tion. 

"What is Spiritualism? What do Spiritualists be- 
lieve? As there is no creed and no one is bound by 
any ritual, it becomes exceedingly difficult to make a 
statement of belief applicable to all; yet there are 
certain fundamental principles on which all agree, as 
forming the basis of the spiritual philosophy: 

" 1. Man is a dual being, comprising a physical 
structure and a spirit. The spirit is evolved by and 
out of a physical body, having corresponding form 
and development. 

"2. This spiritual being is immortal. 

" 3. Death is the separation of this duality, and does 
not affect the spirit, morally or intellectually. 

" 4. The spirit holds the same relations to the spirit- 
world that man holds to physical nature. 

"5. The spirit, there as here, works out its own 
salvation, receiving the reward of well-doing, and suf- 
fering for wrongful actions. 

" 6. The knowledge, attainment and experience of 
earth-life form the basis of the spirit-life, which is 
hence a continuity of the same existence. 

"7. Spiritual bodies are evolved by, and eliminated 
from, physical bodies. They differ in grades of mor- 
ality and intelligence, as men differ on earth. 

"8. These departed spirits, retaining all their love 
and affection, can and do return and communicate with 
those in this life. Their capability of so doing does 
not depend upon their intelligence or morality. 

"9. Mediumship rests upon sensitiveness, which is 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 629 

not dependent on culture or morals, though elevated 
and controlled thereby. 

" 10. Individualized spirit is the reality, and the 
highest type of creative energy. In this sense man is 
divine and endowed with infinite capabilities, and united 
in brotherhood, having a common origin, purpose and 
destiny." 

WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM? 

[By Thomas Gales Forster] 

" * Is God asleep, that he should cease to be 
All that he was to Prophets of the Past ; 
All that he was to Poets of old time ; 
All that he was to Hero-souls, who clad 
Their sun-bright minds in adamantine mail 
Of constancy, and walked the world with Him, 
And spake with His deep music on their tongue, 
And acted with his pulse within the heart, 
And died, or seemed to outward sense to die, 
Vanishing in light, as if the sun 
Gathered its image back into itself? 
Is God less real now than when he sang, 
And smote with His right hand the harp of space, 
And all the stars from His electric breath, 
In golden galaxies of harmony, 
Went choiring out, heart-flushed with life from 
Him?' 

" The Spiritualist believes that after the phenomenon 
termed death has occurred, and you have buried the 
body, man has an individualized conscience beyond the 



630 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

grave. You know that all Spiritualists believe this, 
and that all who believe this are called Spiritualists, 
whatever else they believe. The Spiritualists believe 
in addition, that these individualized spirits can, and 
under proper conditions, do, communicate with the 
friends they have left in the form. But there is a large 
body of minds in Christendom that declare these two 
items of the spiritualistic faith to be erroneous, on the 
ground that they are opposed by the Bible, and that 
they are antagonistic to the teachings of the Bible. 
With this declaration of Christendom we are at issue; 
the phenomena of modern Spiritualism, upon which 
rests these two items of faith, are not only not antag- 
onistic to the Bible, but they are strictly analagous 
to the facts of the Bible; indeed, that there is such a 
striking analogy existing between the two, as to be 
apparent to the most casual observer. 

"A miracle according to the Orthodox interpreta- 
tion, is said to be constituted through a deviation from 
the cause of nature. But the intelligent inquirer at 
once suggests the inquiry. How shall man be enabled 
by this rule to determine when a miracle is performed? 
For, even in the present age of earnest inquiry, who 
shall decide as to the legitimate course of Nature? In 
the days of Moses and of Jesus, men were not so well 
informed as in the present day with regard to such 
matters, and consequently were more liable to run into 
error in drawing their deductions from the phenomena 
by which they were surrounded. Upon this point, 
Spiritualism declares that a miracle, in the theological 
sense, is scientifically, philosophically and morally im- 
possible; and that if it were possible that a miracle 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 631 

could take place in that sense, it would not only destroy 
the divinity of the Bible, but it would destroy divinity 
itself — and why? Thus: no one will deny that God 
is infinite in his attributes, and that natural law is the 
effect of the perfection and divinity of those attributes, 
and that consequently, all things have been arranged 
upon the wisest and best plan, for the wisest and best 
purposes. 

"Any deviation, therefore, from this plan must be 
a detraction, because there can be no change in what 
is perfect, except for the worse. To have a system of 
religion as is done in the Orthodox world, upon the 
performance of miracles, with the theological inter- 
pretation of the word, is to base that system upon the 
inharmony of the divine attributes; and in so doing 
you necessarily deprive Deity of that which alone 
makes him infinite. 

" The spiritual school, therefore, is entirely justified 
in declaring that a miracle, so interpreted, is utterly 
impossible. The legitimate corollary, therefore, is 
that all the various phenomena of the past, as recorded 
in the Old and New Testaments, together with the 
analogous manifestations of the present day, were and 
are in accordance with the harmonious action of natural 
law; and that none of the powers that were exercised 
in the past through any of the prophets, patriarchs 
or seers, through Jesus or his apostles were drawn 
from without the domain of Nature." 

These three definitions give us — I should say — as 
good an idea of what Spiritualism is, as our finite 
minds can encompass. 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

Mr. Forster in his course of reasoning speaks of 
destroying the divinity of the Bible; the extent to 
which a book partakes of the quality called divinity 
is the amount of valuable truth it contains. 

Possibly I may not grasp Mr. Forster's meaning, 
albeit, however, we do not wish to reopen the case. 

Now in regard to truth I wish to say a word. 

This word is many times used in a vague and ab- 
stract way and we are many times misled owing to the 
immense range of use, and interpretation. To illus- 
trate here are two examples. 

Truth No. 1. John Doe purchased of Richard Roe 
a farm, consideration $2,000. Upon investigation this 
is found to be the truth in every detail; but what does 
it amount to outside of the parties immediately con- 
cerned? And to them it is only a transitory shift and 
is no matter of vital interest to them; but it is truth. 

Truth No. % A confidential friend of mine whose 
veracity I have never had occasion to question, comes 
and tells me that he has actually and truly held con- 
verse with an intimate friend who had passed this life 
many years ago. Well as in the case of John Doe, 
a committee are set at work investigating, and after 
making what are called test conditions to the utmost 
extent of human ingenuity, aided in this many times 
by these spirit intelligences they at length return with 
this verdict : " It is a fact the so-called dead are not 
dead at all." What a tremendous contrast between 
these two truths : the first to be dismissed with the next 
succeeding moment. The second the most important 
and stupendous truth that ever set to vibration the 
circumambient air. If there is a more important 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 63S 

thing that can engage our minds than this, let the 
savant who knows stand forth and make it known. 

Then let us again repeat the dual interrogation, the 
propositions upon which this work is built. 

"Is the Bible a revelation from the Infinite? And 
do we survive the change called Death? " I have 
answered these questions according to the best of my 
ability considering all the limitations by which I am 
environed. 

I have aimed to treat the Scripture fairly and bring 
out the very best there is in it that is pertinent to our 
case. But the great bulk is like the deal between 
John Doe and Richard Roe, it is valueless to our 
present day needs. 

I have made selections from the Spiritual literature 
that I have within the few years past read, that has 
deeply interested me. There is a vast amount to draw 
from. These selections which I here give with the 
other proof has radically changed my course of 
thought and has certainly made me a happier man. 

Then the question resolves itself into this. If this 
be true, that the so called dead can return and ex- 
change thoughts with those in the physical, and the 
corollary of their evidence is " that the Christian re- 
ligion rests on a false foundation, namely, the Bible, 
and that Salvation through a crucified God is a deep- 
rooted error, and that through false teaching we get 
a wrong conception of Death and its meaning; that 
it is not the arch fiend that the clergy tells us, but is 
a sequence as natural as birth. That Death is the 
door that leads to the better and higher life. Those 
who have been there for a long time tell us, that they 



634 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

can hardly call it that they commenced to live until 
their earth career was closed. 

Then I would ask, what should be the attitude of 
those who have examined the claims of Spiritualism 
and found them true? 

Should we rest supinely and wait for our arisen 
friends to do the work of evangelizing' the world? 
They are willing and will gladly do their part, but 
the work to be done belongs to our plain of being and 
is solely for our benefit, and if results are to be ob- 
tained we must lend a helping hand and prove our- 
selves in earnest. 

I have heard of a sin called the sin of Omission 
which amounts to the same thing as hiding your light 
under a bushel, a thing disapproved of by Christ, for 
he commands us to let our lights shine. 

There is also another sin called the sin of Ignorance 
which St. Paul says is to be winked at. But let us 
stop a moment and consider this sin of Ignorance and 
the amount of winking that may sometimes be required 
to wink you wise. 

Suppose you through self conceit and ignorance 
persist in making a journey, independent of the kindly 
advice of friends, and find yourself into a quagmire 
where you cannot extricate yourself, and you are 
floundering and sinking into the ooze and slime, yet 
you can see those who proffered their friendly advice 
and were willing to help you, but can now only wink 
at you as you are reaping the fruits of your folly. 
This is my interpretation to this sin of ignorance 
which is to be " winked at." How much consolation 
will you get out of the winking? 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 635 

Now the great question is. Would the world be 
made better and would mankind be happier if Spirit- 
ualism were generally accepted, believed and under- 
stood? 

I can only answer this question hypothetically but 
I certainly think, yes. 

Now let us consider a few of the cardinal sources of 
sorrow and trouble that mankind is heir to at this 
present age. 

1. Disease and death. 

2. Intemperance and its concomitant evils. 

$. Crime, all manner of crime where the criminal 
has to suffer as well as the one against whom the 
crime is committed. 

4. Misdirected ambition which gives rise to our 
commercial age of graft and greed and predatory 
wealth, which has a tendency to corrupt the morals 
of our legislative bodies from the least to the greatest 
throughout the whole body politic; for it is a fact 
that none can deny that our legislatures are com- 
posed to a great extent and dominated largely by cor- 
poration attorneys and bondholders who are studying 
the mercenary interests of their principals and them- 
selves. 

And through political extravagance, exorbitant 
salaries, and waste of the public funds, and excessive 
taxes, this breeds a contagion of dissatisfaction among 
the laboring class which weakens their morals and in- 
cites them to vice and crime. This calls for enlarged 
jails and prisons, an increased force of lawyers, sheriffs, 
constables and policemen to preserve the peace, which 
is not preserved. I cannot dilate upon these evils, it 






636 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

would require chapters; we all know that they 
exist. 

How would Spiritualism effect a remedy to these 
difficulties? do you ask. 

Well, firstly, what could " Rob the grave of victory 
and take the sting from Death" as would Spiritualism? 

Now let us take all of the sins and crimes that man- 
kind are prone to commit, collectively; then suppose 
that we all understand that our life continues, or 
survives the death of the body and that we carry our 
consciousness, our memory and our whole life record 
into the other world and this record is unfolded before 
our face, and the dark deeds that we may have thought 
were locked within our breasts, and forever sealed with 
the coffin lid are shown us as an open book, and we are 
conscious that the ones against whom these wrongs 
and crimes have been committed will be sure to meet 
us in the bye and bye, would this not make us more 
circumspective in our conduct and would we not be 
careful as to the record we carry with us to the great 
beyond? 

The Christian Religion and Materialism are neither 
of them incentives to good conduct. The former 
teaches forgiveness, or atonement, while the latter 
teaches crass irresponsibility. Spiritualism teaches 
that what you sow that must you reap and if you 
persist in sowing the wind you must reap the whirl- 
wind! 

If this great truth could have been taught for the 
length of time that has Christianity — leaving out all 
coercion — do you think there would come to our ears 
at this time such reports as we are receiving of the 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 637 

atrocities from barbarous Mexico, one of the Christian 
nations of the earth? I certainly do not think so. 

Then assuming Spiritualism to be a fact, as those 
who have investigated most thoroughly declare it is, 
and that we take up the thread of life on the other 
shore just where we laid it down here; and after sur- 
veying the world's situation from all of the different 
angles that we can attain to, and we become satisfied 
that nine-tenths of the world's miseries, crimes and 
sins is the result of ignorance and that the great 
central source of this ignorance is a false conception 
of God and a fabulous Theology built thereon. 

Then I would ask, is there not something yet to do 
for those who have received this Spiritual light? And 
does not this something consist in doing missionary 
work right here at home, in trying to lead our erring 
Christian Brothers and Sisters into this better light. 

This may sound audacious to many, but let me tell 
you a thing. A short time since I was in conversation 
with a Christian clergyman, and I told him about the 
same as I say here in regard to the error that is 
preached and taught and this is what he said in sub- 
stance : " Do you not see a marked difference between 
the preaching of to-day and that of forty or fifty 
years ago when the wrath of Gotl and the tortures of 
the damned in hell was the burden of their preaching? 
You must not expect this change to be brought about 
too sudden; it is coming about as fast as the people 
are able to receive it." Now what does this go to 
prove? It proves that the Christian churches were 
preaching and teaching error forty or fifty years ago 
and that they are doing the same to-day only in a 



638 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

somewhat modified form. But modified error is not 
truth, nor may it be any better than the original error. 
The Bible remains the same — and according to the 
inflexible decree of God it must, "For he who adds 
thereto God will add all of the plagues spoken of in 
the Book, and he who takes therefrom, his part is 
taken from the book of life." 

It was the King James version forty or > fifty years 
ago and this is still used in the Christian pulpits to 
day as far as I know; and is taught and impressed 
upon the plastic mind of childhood and of youth and 
here is the great wrong. Orthodoxy teaches immor- 
tality in a way, but so unnatural and unreasonable 
that it can only breed Fanatics and Infidels and 
doubters. It has nothing to offer but the Bible, and 
this to be accepted on faith, because there is nothing, 
• — as taught — that can be accepted on reason. 

While Spiritualism is ready and willing to demon- 
strate all of its claims. 

But my dear friends my midnight oil is running low ; 
my lamp is burning dim; the limit is reached. 

Here is my testimony to the world. Had I been bet- 
ter endowed or in possession of more wisdom, I might 
have given it better. 

But I have aimed to give this testimony true to my 
convictions, knowledge and belief. 

Whether this book will survive the generation in 
which it is written I cannot say, but these truths re- 
corded here will endure, however much my memory 
may be reviled and calumniated, or this book spoken 
of with invective or aspersion. 

But ever bear this in mind, dear reader, I shall little 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 639 

reek the opprobrium that may be heaped upon me, if 
perchance in the future, whether on the shores of time 
or in the Infinite hereafter, I may be greeted with these 
word, "I was made happier by the reading of your 
book." 

If there are things I have omitted upon which you 
may wish more light or that which I have not made 
plain, remember there are many other volumes upon 
this great subject, written by the master minds of the 
world and attested to by them. I would be pleased to 
give the names of some of them, but will forbear. — 
Good Night—Good — Night. 

IN ANSWER TO A FRIEND 

My friend, your letter is received, 

In which you mention that of late 
You have been seriously grieved 

About my spiritual state: 
You fear my wings of faith are furled ; 

That my attention has been given 
To matters of this present world, 

And not in thoughts and hopes of heaven. 

You urge me to remember well 

That death can not be far away; 
Then judgment ; then a burning hell, 

Or blissful realms of endless day: 
If I would dwell in glory there 

While everlasting ages roll, 
My first concern, my only care, 

Henceforth, should be to save my soul. 



640 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

My friend, we once dwelt heart to heart ; 

We saw things with the self -same eye; 
But we have drifted far apart 

As years have rolled unheeded by: 
Hence I am hopeless to explain, 

In words that shall express my thought, 
The sense of loss, regret and pain, 

With which your message has been fraught. 

I found myself, while I was young, 

Where fierce conflicting forces met — 
The long-fought war 'twixt Right and Wrong 

Which neither side has won as yet: 
Oppression's hosts, a surging tide, 

Swept on, resistless as the sea: 
Could I turn carelessly aside, 

And say, " All this is naught to me " ? 

And I have prayed, e'en from my youth, 

" O Heavenly Father, send me light 
Whereby to see Thy highest Truth; 

Grant me the strength to do the Right: 
So purged of self, so filled with Thee, 

Lifted Thy heart of love so near, 
That I might Thy co-worker be, 

Throughout my transient sojourn here! " 

But now you come and call me down, 
And bid me seek another theme — 

A silver harp, a golden crown, 

In worlds of which we hope or dream: 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 641 

And from the cradle to the grave, 

Your recent precept runs, my whole 
Transcendent duty is to save 

My own poor little soul! 

Ye point me to the Holy One 

Who was on Calvary crucified, 
And bid me look to Him alone 

As Teacher, Master, Savior, Guide: 
I trust, my friend, that you have kept 

His lessons in your memory well ; 
Had He no mission here except, 

Think ye, to save Himself from hell? 

Sad were the days, says holy writ, 

When Jesus dwelt in Nazareth; 
Injustice in the judgment seat 

Condemned the innocent to death: 
Extortion, with relentless hand, 

Destroyed the honest poor for gain; 
And all that fair and sacred land 

Was filled with want, and woe, and pain. 

If I have read the tale aright, 

With Jesus it did not suffice 
To meditate on the delight 

Awaiting Him in Paradise: 
He dwelt among, He made his own, 

The sorrows of the multitude; 
The heir of an eternal throne, 

He spent His life in doing good. 



642 PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 

" The world has gained since that time ! " Yes- 

But in its fairest realms to-day 
Justice, and Truth and Righteousness, 

Not yet hold undisputed sway: 
Ill-gotten wealth, in chill disdain, 

Spurns honest labor to the dust, 
And men and women ask in vain 

The chance to earn a meager crust. 

Babes moan and die for lack of bread; 

Men live but half their days; and life, 
Which might be glorious instead, 

Is one wild, internecine strife, 
The luxury-burdened millionaire 

Mocks at his victim's dying curse ; 
The diapason of despair 

Resounds throughout the universe. 

My friend, I cannot dwell at ease, 

And eat my walnuts, drink my wine, 
Amid such scenes and sounds as these, 

And feel it no affair of mine: 
My soul cannot serenely stay 

Unmoved by anguish such as this, 
And " sweetly sing herself away 

To realms of everlasting bliss." 

The alley hovels, mean and low, 

Which these, my brothers, occupy, 
Need more of my attention now 

Than far-off " mansions in the sky " : 



PROGRESSIVE AGE OF REASON 643 

And I with God's eternal plan 

May be as fully in accord 
When weeping with my fellow-man 

As when " rejoicing in the Lord." 

In truth, I spend but little thought, 

I have not time to rack my brain, 
Whether I may, or I may not, 

Some distant "better world" attain: 
But O I would rejoice to do 

A little something for mankind, 
That I, upon my passage through, 

Might leave a " better world " behind. 

If I were face to face with death, 

Methinks for self I scarce would care, 
But yielding up my latest breath, 

Be this to God my earnest prayer: 
" O hasten, hasten, to fulfill 

The glorious promise Thou hast given, 
That all mankind shall do Thy will 

On earth as it is done in heaven ! " 

And when my soul at last shall rise 

Beyond this darkness into day, 
Perchance, to crown that sweet surprise, 

Some voice of Love divine may say : 
" Come, weary spirit, to thy rest ! 

Welcome ! for whatsoever ye 
On earth have done unto the least 

Of these, ye did it unto me ! " 

— J. L. McCreery. 
Washington, D. C. 



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